RYAN DELANEY HOPES a strong finish to the season can ensure that he’ll have another two medals in his back pocket by the time he returns to Burton Albion.
Since his loan move from the English Championship club at the start of the year, Delaney has won the President’s Cup and Munster Senior Cup with Cork City. However, the young defender is keen to get his hands on the two biggest prizes in Irish football before he resumes his career in England.
Having initially joined Cork City until June, Delaney had his loan spell extended to the end of the season after impressing at the heart of the Leesiders’ defence. He’s set to head back to Nigel Clough’s Burton at the end of a season which he hopes will conclude with Cork City’s third consecutive FAI Cup final appearance.
A first Premier Division title in 12 years is within touching distance for John Caulfield’s side. Their attentions switch to their FAI Cup defence tonight, and an opportunity to book a place in the quarter-finals at the expense of First Division strugglers Athlone Town.
“It’s always nice, especially when you’re young, to be on a winning team,” Delaney said. “There’s a chance to win the league and then obviously the cup is a big thing as well. You always want to win things, especially when you’re younger it’s even better.”
Delaney admits that many of Cork City’s recent performances haven’t been up to scratch. Having been undefeated all year until July, they suffered three defeats in six games — the most recent of which was a 1-0 loss at home to Sligo Rovers last Friday.
City rebounded on Monday night, with Delaney instrumental in Garry Buckley’s goal in a 1-0 victory over Finn Harps in Ballybofey which re-established their 17-point lead over Dundalk. With seven games remaining, the table-toppers need just five more points to be crowned champions.
Delaney said: “There’s probably a couple of different factors that could have went wrong but we knew ourselves, every single one of us, that we weren’t on our game [against Sligo]. We were a little below par. It’s been a long season but the main thing for us now is that we’ve just got to finish it out strong, the way we started it.”
The Wexford native added: “It was good to get back to the routine [against Finn Harps] and back to winning games. Obviously we played well for the whole 90 minutes, moved the ball very well and got a lot of chances. Just getting back to square one for us was the main thing.”
Prior to linking up with Cork City, Delaney hadn’t made a first-team appearance for Burton Albion in his six months with the club since he joined from Wexford. But after establishing himself as a key player for the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division’s champions-elect, the 20-year-old centre-half is hopeful that the experience he has gained this year can help him to kickstart his career in England.
“I do keep an eye on them to see how they’ve been doing,” Delaney said of his imminent return to Burton. “They’ve been doing quite well so the main thing for me is to keep improving and then when I go back over it’s time for me to push on and hopefully get a chance.”
FAI Cup second round
Friday
Bluebell United v Cabinteely — Stradbrook, 7.00pm
Shelbourne v Shamrock Rovers — Tolka Park, 7.45pm
Bangor Celtic v Longford Town — Iveagh Grounds, 7.45pm
St Patrick’s Athletic v Galway United — Richmond Park, 7.45pm
Cork City v Athlone Town — Turner’s Cross, 7.45pm
Drogheda United v Cobh Wanderers AFC — United Park, 7.45pm
Saturday
Crumlin United v Dundalk — Iveagh Grounds, 4.00pm
Limerick v Finn Harps — Markets Field, 6.30pm
