Despite having battled with dire finances for much of the 2006 season, mainly due to market risk-taking in the drive for success, over-expenditure on player-purchase fees, high wages, low home attendance rates and continuing tax debts, Shelbourne actually managed to win the title.

This was at the expense of the players, though, who had gone for weeks without their wages and it seemed that the only thing keeping them performing at the club was the season's climax and the drive for the title, as well as promises (which ultimately turned out to be empty) of a remedy.

Due to the finances, many found it extraordinary that Shelbourne had been awarded a Premier Division licence for 2007 by the Independent Assessment Group a few months earlier.

They saw it as another chance to criticise the lack of transparency within the organisation that appointed the Group who were supposed to dispense licences to clubs who were solvent and financially stable for the foreseeable future - the Football Association of Ireland.

Fenlon's departure precipitated a widescale exodus from Tolka Park, as players, unhappy with the wage situation, departed to rival clubs - many having their contracts rescinded by law.