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The latest in a number of League of Ireland partnerships with schoolboy clubs sees St. Patrick’s Athletic announce a link-up with Cherry Orchard.

The Ballyfermot club join Pats' other partners Crumlin United and Belvedere.

Ger O'Brien, Saints' director of football, told the official club website of his delight with the exciting development as well giving his gratitude to the Dublin 10 club.

"We are really happy to officially announce this partnership with Cherry Orchard and we are very excited to have added one of the biggest schoolboy names in Irish football to our group of partner clubs.

"The agreement came about after long discussions with the Cherry Orchard committee and Karl [Keogh, Orchard director of football].

“They have done a huge amount of work in recent years in Elmdale which will only help their young players moving forward and we are looking forward to working alongside them and helping to continue their good work developing young players."



Over the years, Pats and Cherry Orchard have always had a good relationship, which meant a number of Orchard players joined the club thereafter.

Two senior members of the Pats squad, Jack Bayly and Darragh Markey, are graduates of the Orchard youth system, and five of Orchard's under-16 team from last season are now in the Saints under-17 squad.

O’Brien is looking to make the relationship between the pair even stronger.

"We've have had a really good relationship with the club down the years. We've signed some really good players from Cherry Orchard. Darragh, Jack and Jamie McGrath, along with the boys in our U17s have all done really well.

“We know they also have a very strong academy which they've been working hard on for years and have always produced top players.

"We are also planning to help Cherry Orchard and our other partners clubs in terms of coach education to help make their coaches better which helps the pathway and development of all of the players."



Cherry Orchard's director of football Karl Keogh says he’s looking forward to the partnership and anticipates it being a success:

"Cherry Orchard have always been renowned for producing players of the highest calibre for the professional game in Ireland and the UK and, given how professional the set up is at Pats, we felt they offered the best environment for our players to progress into.

“Irish football has changed and will continue to change with the League of Ireland U15 and U13 divisions coming along, so this is an important move for us.

"A lot of our players in recent years have signed for St Pat's and done really well. They've all had really good things to say about the environment there and we want to continue that.

“It makes sense for both clubs, as there has been un-written relationship over the years, now it's about kicking that on, making that stronger and hopefully having a lot of success going forward."

This development follows a trend in the League of Ireland in recent seasons, as a number of clubs have decided to go down the route of forging partnership with schoolboy clubs.

Bray Wanderers have partnered with St Joseph’s Boys, Drogheda with Home Farm as well as Shamrock Rovers will Corduff, among other recent agreements.