There was a time when Chris O’Dowd was considered the only famous thing to come out of Boyle. But in League of Ireland circles, the Hollywood actor is a bit-part player compared to the man who has emerged to star on centre stage. A year ago James Bolger was barely a household name in his own home, playing for a third tier Swedish club called Bodens FK, unheard of within Irish soccer’s tight circle. Now his name is on everyone’s lips, his talent coming to the Boyle, so to speak. Read more: Stephen Bradley update on Heimir Hallgrimsson talks as stand-by star shines in front of Ireland boss Read more: Cork City boss gives Sean Maguire fitness update and discusses avenues for signing striker Like O’Dowd, he is from Roscommon, having played his underage football for local club, Boyle Celtic, prior to stints on the US College scene with Northwestern Red Raiders and Longwood Lancers and then that short shift in Sweden. Now look at him. Drogheda United, his current club, are top of the League, six months after winning the FAI Cup, a team of unknowns who have the lowest budget in the League defying the odds week after week to storm ahead of defending champs, Shelbourne, and big hitters, Shamrock Rovers. Bolger, 24, says: “Players here would say they have a point to prove to themselves. The success we are enjoying comes down to the mentality of the lads. Hard work has got us where we are. “Everyone is willing to give everything they have. There are no egos about; everyone knows the defending starts with the strikers. “A lot of our lads have been around the league for some time and are finally getting to show their best side, their winning side, and are given the platform now we’re top of the league. “We are all riding high. “It’s hard to put into words when you see yourself at the top. As a group we knew that we had a good chance to be near there because we’ve been playing well for the last nine months. “So we know what we can do; it’s just a matter of putting in the work that’s needed to get the result. We’ve been doing it so far. You feed off it in the games, you realise the hard hard work got us here so you’re more willing to do it week in, week out now because you know the results are there for it.” Last July it was all so different. For starters, Drogheda were bottom, not top, of the League. At Dundalk, they were hammered 4-2, a defeat that stung, not just because it was to their biggest rivals, but also because it consigned them to bottom place in the table. Then the following week, the turnaround began. In came Bolger but also others: Luke Dennison, Frantz Pierrot, Ryan Brennan. There was also a change of formation … but more crucially in attitude. And since then they haven’t looked back, their form in the second half of the season good enough to take them clear of relegation and also to a FAI Cup triumph. That 2-1 victory over Dundalk in the Cup, a week after losing to their rivals, 4-2, was Bolger’s debut, his Drogheda birth coinciding with the team’s rebirth. Bolger said: “I can still remember my first game for Drogheda. I’d never played in front of as many people before and I walked out and you’re just looking around trying to take it all in. “The buzz is electrifying out there, honestly, you get out for the warm-up and you’re buzzing around the place, and in trying to get your second wind and then you’re into the game. But the fans kick you on a gear or two just listening to them. “The biggest crowd I had ever played in front of was 1,100 people. “Now it is at least double that each and every week.” And his name is getting out there. Back home in Boyle, Chris O’Dowd’s father is promoting his fellow town-man’s name on the town’s Facebook page. Live games on TV, such as this Friday’s game between Drogheda and Shels, is introducing him, and League of Ireland football, to a new audience. Farrell said: “People in the west are getting more and more into the League of Ireland scene; people have said it is the Gaelic side of the country but football is huge down there. “Good players are out there if you find them. “The advantage of a third tier is that untapped potential will persuade a lot of players to choose football over Gaelic as they try third tier football to see if they can get onto a better team.” “The League of Ireland is getting increasingly popular in areas where it wouldn’t have been. I can’t begin to tell you the number of people who are coming up to me telling me they’ve been watching this and that game. It’s been unreal. “Even as players, just walking out in front of the TV cameras there, it has been brilliant yeah, a serious buzz.” And everyone in Drogheda is feeding off that. This, remember, is a club that has spent so much of its history in Dundalk’s shadow, a four-year golden era ending almost as abruptly as it started, when financial trouble hit in 2008. Prior to then they won four trophies. And since then just one … until November, when a second FAI Cup was added to the honours board. “It means more to the people here, seeing their town ahead of every other club in Ireland on the League table. “This is a special time. Long may it last.” Get the latest sports headlines straight to your inbox by signing up for free email.