Fleetwood Town secured passage into the next round of the FA Cup last night, defeating League One rivals Sheffield Wendesday in their fourth round replay at Highbury.
The two sides drew 1-1 in the original game last week, with former Bohemians striker Promise Omochere scoring Fleetwood's goal. He was in the team once again last night, being joined by former Waterford winger Phoenix Patterson.
Fleetwood Town have some very strong links to the League of Ireland. Not only have they become sister clubs with Waterford, but they have also looked across the top two divisions to bring young talent across the Irish Sea. Along with Omochere and Patterson, Cork City goalkeeper David Harrington and Waterford's Junior Quitirna also joined the club in January.
Scott Brown explains Fleetwood Town's League of Ireland approach
It seems as though Fleetwood Town will put a major emphasis on recruitment from the League of Ireland moving forward.
Speaking to BBC Lancashire after last night's victory, he was full of praise for both Omochere and Patterson and said his club will continue blooding players from the Irish league moving forward.
"We want to try and bring players over from Ireland. We want to show them there's a pathway."
Phoenix Patterson and Promise Omochere are two players who starred in #Fleetwood Town's FA Cup win against #Sheffield Wednesday.#OnwardTogether | #BBCFACup | #bbcfootball— BBC Sport Lancashire (@BBCLancsSport) February 8, 2023
We've got a great club over in Ireland as well, hopefully we manage to have a great relationship going forward.
We want to bring players over from Ireland, we want to show them there is a pathway. We want to show them we can put them into our team.
It's been hard for Promise, it's been hard for Phoenix, because of the standards we set and the willingness and effort they've got to put in. It has taken them a long time for them to get there, but today they have done exactly what we needed them to do.
They want to listen and want to get better, you can't ask to work with two better people. People that haven't got a chip in their shoulder, they get dropped and ask questions why they got dropped, then they go and respond like that.
For me, that's what you want. You want good people about the building and that's what they are.
They've come over from Ireland and they're coming into a good team that wants to play good football. We've got to start climbing the table now.
Fleetwood Town have partnered with Waterford moving forward, with their owner Andy Pilley becoming the sole owner of the League of Ireland club last year. The two have become closely linked since then, with former Ireland striker Jonathan Walters currently acting as technical director at both clubs.
It will be interesting to see how the relationship works moving forward, although the English club clearly see a huge amount of potential in focusing their recruitment on Irish-based players.
SEE ALSO: 8 Players That Turned Down The Chance To Play For Ireland
