Brian McFadden hopes he can turn Chorley FC into next Wrexham

Irish singer Brian McFadden has said he hopes to turn Chorley FC into another Wrexham after the Welsh team featured in a TV series following co-owners and Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.

Former Westlife singer McFadden told Chorley fans to dream of the Football League as he took his place in the Lancashire club’s small VIP stand along with prospective fellow investors Keith Duffy and Shane Lynch from pop group Boyzone.

Clad in Chorley shirts and clutching pints of beer, the trio signed autographs and posed for pictures for fans, with their presence the only topic of conversation around the ground for Saturday’s FA Trophy fifth-round tie against Solihull Moors.

It has not been confirmed what roles will be played by McFadden and Duffy – who started the Boyzlife duo together – along with Lynch and Boyzone lead singer Ronan Keating, who could not attend the match.

But McFadden suggested a deal is near, telling the PA news agency: “It’s pretty close. I’ve just been talking about coming to the next home game with my family so you’ll probably see quite a lot of us. We’re in.”

It was the Irish star’s first visit to Chorley, and he said: “Shane’s business partner bought the club seven months ago and asked Shane to get involved.

“Shane’s not really a football man but he knew that me and Keith love football so he got us involved, and Ronan. We want to be part of something from the ground up.

“I’m a Manchester United fan myself, I’ve got season tickets at Old Trafford, but it’s a corporation. You look at something like Chorley Football Club and you see this belongs to the town, it belongs to the people, it belongs to the community.

“For us to be able to get involved in something at that level and to try and take it