THE original idea for this column was to put forward the idea that it might be worth an English club, like Middlesbrough, linking up with one from the League of Ireland.

Athlone Town, I was informed on Monday night, would love to become a feeder club for a team in the English Premier League or even the Championship, if the proposal was right. Bray Wanderers, who Boro faced last night, would also embrace any such opportunity.

But while there have been offerings of talent on show from both struggling Irish teams I have watched this week, Tuesday night hardly helped to strengthen their cause.

There is currently an inquest in to the failings of League of Ireland Premier Division champions Bohemians’ performance in Oswestry, Shropshire, where they crashed out of the Champions League with a 4-0 second leg defeat to Welsh champions The New Saints.

It was a display that led to Bohs’ boss Pat Fenlon being verbally abused by furious supporters as he walked off the Park Hall Stadium pitch, with one fan hurling a club-crested flag in his direction in disgust.

Victory would have set up a glamorous tie with Belgian outfit Anderlecht but, more tellingly given the financial crisis engulfing Irish football, failure to progress has cost the Dalymount club a 500,000euros windfall.

There are now major concerns for the future of Bohemians, with Fenlon stating that “the club will not be able to go forward, and the players have to realise that.”

It would be a welcome development if a more wealthy English club offered to form a link, similar to that which Manchester United have previously held with Royal Antwerp in Belgium and that which has seen Home Farm, a non-league Irish club, pushing young players to Portsmouth in recent years.

The last five years have seen the financial collapse of a number of league winning clubs in Ireland due to overspending and mismanagement.

Shelbourne suffered demotion after winning the First Division title in 2006 with millions of euros debt. Cork City, who Sunderland and Hartlepool have acquired players from in recent times, had to bounce back from falling out of existence earlier this year.

While Drogheda entered into receivership with a deficit of 732,000 euros in 2008 before Derry City were thrown out of the league at the end of 2009 for producing false documents regarding player contracts.

Such situations led to the Football Association of Ireland becoming the first governing body to introduce a salary cap in the hope it would steer the league to brighter times.

So far that has not worked and all clubs, including Athlone and Bray, would be keen to develop players on behalf of the likes of Boro, strengthening their financial state which currently prevents them from turning things around at the wrong end of their respective divisions.

WITH no match to cover on Tuesday night, and work completed, it offered the chance to sample the delights on offer in the small town of Maynooth, which is around 40-minutes drive from Dublin.

Maynooth might have a population of just over 10,000, but at either end of the main street there is the beautiful Maynooth Castle and the Carton House complex, including the hotel lies which has been hosting the Middlesbrough squad.

Maynooth’s most important historical building, mind, is the St Patrick’s College. It was founded in 1795 by King George III to educate Ireland’s catholics and it has ordained more than 11,000 priests.

It is a quaint little town, which only came to life on Tuesday night when a van hired by Middlesbrough football club drove round in circles looking for a decent takeaway, with a list as long as my arm for the orders of Boro’s playing squad. The joys of a modern day footballer.