FLEETWOOD BOSS JOEY Barton believes Paddy Madden could potentially earn a place in the Ireland squad if he continues his current form.

The 29-year-old Dubliner earned a number of caps for Ireland at underage level and also won a senior cap during Giovanni Trapattoni’s reign as manager in 2013, coming off the bench during a friendly against Wales.

Former Bohs striker Madden has been out of the international reckoning since then, but Barton believes he could be in line for a recall in the near future, despite the player’s absence from last week’s provisional Ireland squad.

The League One side’s manager pointed to the inclusion of Newport’s Padraig Amond, who plays a division below Madden, as evidence that his striker cannot be far off a long-awaited recall.

“He has scored a load of goals, he has been fantastic for us,” Barton told reporters when asked about Madden, who has scored 18 goals in all competitions this season, with Fleetwood currently six points off the play-off spots in 10th.

“If lads are getting called up from the division below, then he has to be in the shout for that.

“Mick is a very experienced manager, he will have his pros and cons for picking those over Paddy.

“If he keeps playing the way he has done for the majority of the season, keeps scoring goals, then he will be hard to ignore, but he has to do it for Fleetwood Town consistently.

“I’m sure Mick will call him up if he feels he deserves it.”

Speaking to The42 in December, prior to McCarthy’s recent squad announcement, Madden said he maintained hope of an Ireland recall in future.

A lot of strikers in the squad obviously deserve to be there,” he said. “They play at a higher level than me, so that’s fair enough. But if he goes down the route of calling up League One players, I’m sure I’ll probably be first on the list, because of the amount of goals I’ve scored in this league.

“If you look at the likes of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, they have League One players in their squad and they’re doing reasonably well. I don’t see why Ireland should be any different.”

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