The Irish League has been graced by many top players who have made the brief journey from the Republic of Ireland to ply their trade in local football.
So it was difficult task for NI stats king Marshall Gillespie to narrow it down to a top 10.
It's a high-class list but do you agree with Marshall's selections?
Winger Paul Byrne was one of the most naturally gifted players of any nationality to ply his trade in the Irish League during the 1990s.
Having made his debut in English football with Oxford United at the tender age of 16, he moved to Arsenal where he spent six months turning out for the reserves at Highbury before eventually signing for Bangor in November 1991.
In his second season with the Seasiders, he helped them to an impressive third place in the league, lift the League Cup with a 3-0 victory over Coleraine at Windsor Park and finish the campaign with 22 goals.
However, it is the 1993 Irish Cup final for which he will be remembered as his winning goal saw Bangor win the trophy for the first, and so far, only time in their history.
To cap that tremendous season, Byrne also picked up the PFA, Football Writers' and Young Player of the Year awards before being lured to Celtic by manager Liam Brady for a fee of £70,000.
A combination of loss of form and injury saw him play just 33 games at Parkhead over a period of two seasons before moving on to Southend United in the summer of 1995.
After leaving Roots Hall he did have another, unsuccessful, crack at the Irish League when he joined Glenavon on a short-term deal in 1999.
The former Republic of Ireland U21 international continued his career in the League of Ireland with Bohemians and St Patrick's Athletic and further afield in the United States before his eventual retirement.
After a career in the professional game which boasted over 100 appearances for four different clubs, Russell was persuaded to join Portadown by manager Ronnie McFall following the player's release by Middlesbrough in the close season of 1991.
The Dublin-born midfielder began his footballing education at Manchester United and had loan spells with Birmingham City and Norwich City before departing Old Trafford after three years without making a first-team appearance.
Over the next four years, the gifted midfielder played for Leicester City, Scarborough and Middlesbrough before being tempted to Shamrock Park by McFall at the age of 24.
He won six trophies during his seven seasons with the Ports including a League title in 1996 as well as picking up League Cup, Gold Cup, Budweiser and Mid-Ulster Cup medals too.
The former Republic of Ireland under-21 star was also named 'Player of the Year' in Northern Ireland by his fellow professionals in 1992.
He returned to his native Dublin to join St Patrick's Athletic in 1998 and enjoyed further success with a League title win in his first season with the club.
Upon retiring he became manager at UCD, guiding them to promotion to the Premier League in his first season and that was followed by stints at Limerick and briefly at Bray Wanderers (10 days to be precise!).
Ollie Ralph made nearly 600 appearances for Newry Town, which is an outstanding achievement considering he did not even make his debut for the Bordermen until he was 25.
The Dundalk native, who scored nine goals in 51 games for his hometown club, made the short trip across the border to sign on the dotted line for Newry in the summer of 1983.
Town had just been re-elected to senior football after a 43-year absence and for the next 15 seasons, Ralph proved to be one of the most prolific goal poachers the Irish League has ever seen.
He was at the peak of his powers in 1990 and was named PFA, Football Writers' and Ulster Footballer of the Year as a reward for topping the country's scoring chart with 42 goals in just 49 games for Town.
Ralph was appointed player/manager at the club in December 1996 and hung up his boots the following year, after which he led Newry back to the Premier League upon winning the First Division title in 1998.
He left his role at the Showgrounds due to work commitments in March 1999, but he returned for a second spell in charge in 2002, his reign lasting a mere 14 months before handing in his resignation.
Midfielder Tony Gorman became a legend during his 12 seasons in the Irish League, which produced a phenomenal 17 trophies.
Born in Letterkenny, Gorman had briefly flirted with a career in England with Mansfield Town before returning home to Ireland to see service with Waterford United, Galway United, Finn Harps and Sligo Rovers.
His Irish League journey began when Portadown manager Ronnie McFall signed the 21-year-old midfield dynamo just prior to the start of the 1991/92 campaign.
The Republic of Ireland youth international only had two seasons at Shamrock Park before McFall sold him for £15,000 to Coleraine where, in his first campaign, he was leading scorer at the Showgrounds.
Gorman helped the Bannsiders to the First Division title the following season and became a firm favourite with the Coleraine faithful before Trevor Anderson secured his services for Linfield in July 1996 for the princely sum of £30,000.
At Windsor Park he further enhanced his growing reputation by being instrumental in the Blues winning two league championships, an Irish Cup and four League Cups in a trophy-laden six years at the south Belfast outfit.
The tough-tackling midfielder re-joined the Bannsiders in 2002 and collected more silverware when Coleraine defeated Glentoran 1-0 in the 2003 Irish Cup final.
His second stint at the Showgrounds lasted just two seasons though before he departed to become assistant manager to Pat Fenlon at Derry City.
He did have one further spell in the Irish League when he played six games for Stephen Baxter's Crusaders before retiring from the game in 2008.
Portadown boss Ronnie McFall had a knack of signing prolific strikers down the years but Vinny Arkins was arguably one the best goalscorers he ever brought to Shamrock Park.
The former Republic of Ireland under-21 international had already gained a wealth of experience with clubs such as Shamrock Rovers, St Johnstone, Shelbourne and Notts County when McFall recruited the 26-year-old.
He quickly repaid the manager's faith in him by scoring on his debut in a 3-2 home defeat to Coleraine and in his first full season he was the Ports' top scorer with 37 goals in 53 appearances.
The Dublin-born forward formed a potent partnership with fellow striker Gary Hamilton as they scored 45 of the Co Armagh side's 75 goals as McFall's charges pipped Glentoran to the Gibson Cup in 2002.
He also won two Irish Cup medals in 1999 and in 2005 where he found the net twice as the Ports lifted the trophy for a third time with a 5-1 victory over Larne.
Arkins' phenomenal goalscoring ability saw him score 20 goals in seven of his eight full seasons at Shamrock Park before leaving to end his career back 'home' with Bohemians and St Patrick's Athletic.
Murray may have been 32 years of age when he moved to Crusaders in the summer of 1991, but he still gave seven years of sterling service to the north Belfast outfit helping them win two League titles.
The Dubliner had his aspirations of full-time football with Everton crushed due to a cruciate ligament injury and also being diagnosed with a faulty heart valve when still an apprentice at Goodison Park.
He came back to the League of Ireland though and played for Home Farm, Drogheda United and Dundalk where he clocked up 218 games and won a League and Cup double in 1988.
Following a short stay with St Patrick's Athletic, Crusaders player/boss Roy Walker came knocking and secured his signature in what turned out to be a shrewd move for both parties.
Murray's immaculate distribution and sublime skill in the middle of the park made the former Republic of Ireland youth international a hugely influential figure as the Crues lifted the Irish League championship twice in both 1995 and 1997.
At nearly forty, he ended his playing days at Seaview in 1998, however, he remained with the club taking up the role of assistant manager to fellow Dubliner Aaron Callaghan and eventually being installed as manager in June 1999.
After only a season in charge, he left to take over at Dundalk whom he led to promotion and an FAI Cup in successive seasons before resigning in 2002.
Striker Grant will fondly be remembered by Glenavon fans for his 1997 Irish Cup winning goal against Cliftonville which brought the trophy back to Mourneview Park for only the fifth time in the club's history.
Grant, who hailed from Drogheda, was a one-time trainee at Leeds United before moving to Preston North End making his only first-team appearance for the club in a 1-1 draw with Darlington in March 1996.
Glenavon boss Nigel Best initially took Grant to Lurgan on a season-long loan from Preston in August 1996 and he was an immediate hit, scoring twice on his home debut in a 4-0 Gold Cup win over Ballyclare Comrades.
As well as securing an Irish Cup winner's medal in his first season, he also helped them win the Floodlit Cup and finished the campaign as the club's second-top scorer behind fellow strike partner Glenn Ferguson.
He bettered that tally the following year by netting 29 goals in all competitions and picking up a winner's medal in the Gold Cup after beating Coleraine in the final.
Grant, who once scored in eight consecutive league games for Glenavon, moved to the League of Ireland in 2000 to sign for Shamrock Rovers and went on to play for both Bohemians and Drogheda before returning to the Lurgan Blues in 2008.
He spent a further four seasons at Mourneview, playing another 130 games and scoring 34 goals before hanging up his boots in 2012.
Trevor Anderson's acquisition of Gorman from Shelbourne in 1992 naturally caused a minor stir as Linfield were not that accustomed to signing players from the League of Ireland.
However, despite all the media hype surrounding his move the 'Dundalk Hawk', as he was affectionately known, settled quickly into his new surroundings by helping Anderson's charges to the league title in his first season.
In his second term with the Blues he bagged 23 goals as the south Belfast outfit won a league and cup double as well as the Budweiser and League Cups.
After four successful seasons at Windsor Park, First Division Newry Town, who were then managed by his former boss at Linfield Trevor Anderson, paid £4,500 for the 32-year-old's services in January 1997.
Promotion to the Premier League was achieved the following season where they eventually finished a creditable fourth in the table, with Gorman going on to become the top flight's second-highest scorer with 17 goals.
Upon leaving Newry, Gorman, who attracted interest from Arsenal, Liverpool and Dundee United during his early days with his first club Dundalk, signed for Ards in 2000 after a short stay at Bangor.
In his only full campaign with the North-Down club, he scored in a 2-0 win against Bangor, a result which confirmed their promotion back to the top flight in 2001.
He had short-lived spells with Banbridge Town and Dundalk and even came out of retirement in 2007 to play a handful of Premier League games for Loughgall.
Apart from a spell with his local club Finn Harps, striker Patton spent his entire career in the Irish League until his premature retirement from the game at the age of just 31.
Lifford-born Patton became Harps' youngest ever goalscorer when he found the net on his debut against Kilkenny in March 1990, just three months after his 17th birthday.
In November 1992, after being released by Harps due to financial constraints, Patton was signed by Omagh Town boss Roy McCreadie and given an instant debut against Cliftonville, scoring in a 2-1 victory over the Reds.
He struck up an instant rapport with his new striking partner Liam Coyle at St Julian's Road and between them they scored 37 of the Tyrone's side's 60 goals that term.
After heading the scoring charts with Omagh in his second season with the club, Ballymena United manager Tommy Jackson brought Patton to the Showgrounds in the summer on 1994.
In six years with the Braidmen he totalled over 60 goals and won a First Division Championship medal as promotion to the Premier League was gained in 1997.
The Republic of Ireland under-16 international returned to Omagh in 2000, this was followed by a couple of seasons with Cliftonville where he won a League Cup winner's medal with the Reds in 2004.
After being diagnosed with a groin problem he was advised to retire from the game at 31 and although he attempted a comeback with Newry Town, Patton quit football in 2004.
McHugh was a 24-year-old striker who had six years of experience in professional football when Omagh Town manager Roy McCreadie brought him to St Julian's Road in the summer of 1995.
The Letterkenny man was so highly rated that Billy Bingham even enquired to see if McHugh was eligible to play for Northern Ireland when he was at Bradford City!
McHugh, who joined Omagh from Scarborough, scored 25 goals in his opening season with Town, a tally which included a four-goal haul in a 5-0 victory over Ballyclare Comrades.
Over the next two campaigns, he continued to find the net on a consistent basis, scoring a very impressive 32 goals in his final year with the Tyrone outfit prior to his move to Derry City in 1998.
He failed to reproduce his prolific goalscoring form at the Brandywell though and in August 1999 Coleraine boss Marty Quinn stepped in to take him to the Showgrounds where he spent the next four years.
McHugh was blighted by injury during his time with the Bannsiders', though he still picked up an Irish Cup winner's medal as an unused substitute in 2003.
After he departed from Coleraine he spent a season with Newry City, under Roy McCreadie, before returning to the Republic of Ireland in 2005 and playing out his career in junior football.
