Sean Maguire explains the main difference between playing in England and the LOI

It has been an exciting few months for Sean Maguire.

The former Cork City striker left the soon to be League of Ireland champions to move to Preston North End. Maguire had previously moved over the England to play with West Ham and went on loan at Accrington Stanley but found himself back in Ireland where he ended up tearing League of Ireland apart. Despite leaving in the summer, Maguire is still four goals ahead of his nearest competitor in the form of Dundalk's David McMillan in the race to the golden boot as he leads the league with 20 goals. But Maguire is on the bigger and better things now, he's settling in just fine with Preston and has now made the final cut in the Ireland squad to face Moldova and Wales. Well, Maguire was speaking to the Guardian and elaborated on the difference of playing in the Championship compared to back in Ireland:

“I’ve only been here for three months but I feel I’ve improved in so many ways. It’s very different [to the League of Ireland] in many ways. The main one is probably physically. You’re coming up against guys who are 6ft 2in and built like machines. If you take that second or third touch, they’re going to go through you. Mentally, as well, going into the latter stages of the game, with 20-30 minutes to go, you really have to keep your concentration. If you lose the ball you’re going to get punished – even if you’re playing up front or out on the wing you can find that you end up conceding."

Maguire is joined by a host of Irish over at Preston with Daryl Horgan one man that people have high hopes for, he moved to England at the start of the year and also highlighted the differences:

"It was evening sessions back home," Horgan told the Lancashire Evening Post. "We were pretty much full-time but a couple of the lads had jobs as well so that would mean you'd train in the evenings. You would do your gym work in the morning and then train at 6pm. I was still in the gym at the crack of dawn back home. "It's a different set-up here but one that's going to be good for me. I'm enjoying the training, with it being in the morning – it's brilliant. "Playing in the Europa League definitely helped me get up to the intensity a lot quicker."