As quite a few people have stated over the past twelve hours or so, the race is on. Chris Forrester put in the breakout performance (live on the BBC no less) that we've been expecting from him for a few years now and it's time to start putting your claim in for when you first knew he was going to make it big.
We'll leave it to the St. Pats diehards to rightfully claim that prize but for the rest of us, we can comfort ourselves in knowing that if he keeps going the way he has so far this season, Ireland may well have another quality midfield option over the next couple of years.
We've already seen Kevin Kilbane and Gary Lineker waxing lyrical about Forrester before and during Peterborough's agonising FA Cup replay defeat at the hands of West Brom. It wasn't the ideal finish for Posh but as a League 1 side going up against Premier League opposition, they more than held their own and impressed a lot of neutral viewers.
Aside from the penalty shootout defeat, it was almost as good a night as the former Pats midfielder could have hoped for. He may have been known for his ability going forward during his early days in the League of Ireland but the extent to which he's developed his game over the past couple of years was very much in evidence last night.
The Michael Carrick comparisons are perhaps a bit wide of the mark when you see how comfortable Forrester is taking the ball past opponents but they nonetheless should be taken as a significant compliment. His ability to pull the strings from deep is not something that many players can replicate and if he was being linked with the Premier League in January, then you can bet such links will only increase come this summer.
James McClean got a first hand opportunity to see how Forrester's game had moved on last night. It's fair to say he was duly impressed and he certainly wasn't the only one.
Samuelson and forrester for peterborough tonight have been brilliant 👏
— Shane Duffy (@shaneduffy) February 10, 2016
Nice to see @ChrisForrester1 playing so well last night. Hope to see him in a senior @FAIreland jersey soon! ☘🇮🇪
— Kevin Kilbane (@kdkilbane77) February 11, 2016
Forrester for Ireland.. #player technically far better than majority of the squad.. & thats not having a pop.. #talent 👏🏼
— Keith Fahey (@Keith_Fahey) February 10, 2016
Delighted to hear Chris Forrester get the rave reviews he deserves. Fantastic footballer!!
— Alan Cawley (@alancaw) February 10, 2016
And that's not to say that the plaudits were only coming from Ireland. Posh fans were out in their droves letting everyone know what a talent they had on their hands and Rangers striker Martyn Maghorn was one of a number of people in agreement.
Samuelson, Forrester and Peterborough 👍🏻👏🏻 ⚽️ very good, deserve to win this @Jcollison31 @BBCSport @EmiratesFACup
— Martyn Waghorn (@Mwaghorn_9) February 10, 2016
The Times' chief football writer Henry Winter was also signing the 23 year old's praises.
#pufc 0 #wba 0 h-t. Posh far better side for 30 mins. Good football. Forrester excellent. Beautyman busy. Albion decent end to half. #FACup
— Henry Winter (@henrywinter) February 10, 2016
Tough on Posh. Excellent tonight. Samuelsen, Bostwick, Zakuani, Forrester all good, amongst others.
— Henry Winter (@henrywinter) February 10, 2016
And if the Peterborough Telegraph's match ratings are anything to go by, you can bet your life that Forrester's performance won't have gone unnoticed by the some upwardly mobile Championship sides or perhaps even a couple of Premier League outfits.
Crikey, what a talent Posh have unearthed. Even the man from the Times was singing the young Irish midfielder’s praises. Covered a huge amount of ground, refused to yield to obvious tiredness and kept driving his team forward with his accurate passing. Tremendous effort - 9
The pre-Euro 2016 friendlies may be a bit too soon but with the World Cup qualifying campaign on the horizon, we certainly wouldn't advise betting against seeing Forrester in an Ireland jersey in 2016 or 2017 at the latest.
