It's time to get our collective hopes up yet again, as Ireland have a young striker in form.
Sean Maguire came off the bench last night and helped secure a win for Preston over Bristol City by scoring a a 69th minute winner, only five minutes after his introduction.
Irish teammate Alan Browne had put Preston ahead in the first half with a beautiful chip, but Maguire was needed to wrap up the three points once again, having scored a winning brace against Bolton off the bench just three days earlier.
Off The Ball's Oisin Langan was joined in studio this morning by Johnny Ward, and the pair were quick to get to the subject of the former Cork striker, with Ward praising Maguire's three goals in 50 minutes following his four month absence through a knee injury, and noting how well his time at the Lilywhites has been going from the view of their supporters.
"Three huge goals, not just irrelevant goals when he's coming on and they're four-nil up".
"I was actually in Preston recently and Browne got man of the match that day, they drew one-all against Wolves, but any fan I spoke to said 'we need to get Sean Maguire back'. I think that injury he got mid-season may have been a help as he'd been on the go so long in the League of Ireland, and he went straight into the Championship, and it just gave him a bit of a break I think, and now he's probably that bit fresher.
"He just seems to love it over there, and they love him".
Maguire has certainly been one of major successes in terms of League of Ireland players moving over to the English ranks, and Ward believes that there's a great chance for him to cement a place in not just Preston's team, but the national one as well.
"They play a system where they don't concede many goals, they just look like a team even against Wolves, they're not going to concede. They have one up top and Seanie's revelling in it".
"We've no strikers, so maybe Seanie's going to be the saviour. I'm not sure he's going to deliver a load of goals for Ireland, but at the moment he's a big, big option for us when he gets fit".
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