Former Bohemians striker turned International/Premier League left-back Stephen Ward was our guest on The Balls.ie Football Show this week, and we had a cracking chat about all things Ireland and Burnley as the man himself is enjoying arguably the best patch of form of his career.
That was something Ward agreed with when we put it to him, which was good to hear, but it's clear that the trust placed in him both by Sean Dyche at club level and by Martin O'Neill when it comes to his country have played a big part. But with such a focus on the League of Ireland this week due to the big match between Dundalk and Cork City, we wanted to get the views from a man who begin his career at home.
We wanted to know what it's like for an Irish player in terms of keeping up with the League of Ireland over in England, and by all accounts it's grand.
It's not really tough, obviously I don't see as much as I would like, but these days with social media and apps on your phone I continue to follow the scores, I see what people are saying, and I keep up to date with how teams are getting on like Bohs obviously.
I know there was a big game last night which Dundalk won, but unfortunately I don't have RTÉ or RTÉ 2 to watch the highlights on Monday.
We then asked him directly which member of the Irish squad was the most enthusiastic about the League of Ireland and their former club, and in return we found out exactly how much James McClean loves Derry City.
I would have to say it's definitely James McClean.
Yeah, he's Derry through and through. Every time he's back he tries to get to a game, I think his brother is part of the squad there now so he keeps a keen interest on it, and you know when things are happening he'll be streaming the games somewhere watching them.
Listen, we all take an interest, but I'd have to say he's definitely the number one fan in the squad.
Something to raise a smile on the face of every Derry City fan, who of course would have been under no illusions as to how James McClean feels about his hometown club.
Ward was a very interesting guest and it was great to get an insight into Martin O'Neill's half-time teamtalks for both the Georgia and Moldova games, which you can hear in the interview in full from 20 minutes on in the podcast below.
