Stoke City: Delap ready for battle of throws
Carling Cup quarter-final
Stoke City v Derby County (7.45pm)
by Martin Spinks
RORY Delap's throw will be something of an eye-opener to Derby fans tonight – even though he played 113 times for the Rams.
His aerial missiles were a hidden secret during his Derby days, by and large, and so there could be some envious glances at what might have been if he influences events from the touchline this evening.
Delap played all his football at Derby under Jim Smith between 1998 and 2001, but those throws of his were left to gather dust for the most part.
"We used it sometimes," recalled the 32-year-old midfielder, "but we only had Paulo Wanchope in the team that was of any size, so we used to throw it down the sides more than into the box.
"I've never really had the personnel before now to use it the way I do here at Stoke, I suppose that's why it's getting so much attention now."
Delap has been rested in the Carling Cup so far this season, but did graduate to the bench in the last round and could well be asked to play a fuller role this evening.
"No, I haven't played in the cup yet, but if I get the chance then great," says Delap. "The lads who've played so far have done extremely well and deserve the praise they've had."
It would be an opportune time to muscle into the heart of Stoke's Carling Cup plans as victory over Derby would leave Stoke just a two-legged semi-final away from returning to Wembley for a fourth time in the club's history.
"It's a bit too early for thinking about that just yet," he grins. "We know it's at the end of it, but there's a tough game to come against Derby first.
"We want to win every game, especially at home, and it's certainly not a competition we are under-estimating. It's just as important as a league game for us."
Delap locks horns with his old club for the first time since winning at Pride Park in his last game for Sunderland two years ago before then joining Stoke and breaking his leg two games later.
"There's not many players left there now from my time, just a couple of backroom staff," he reflects.
"Of course it's sad for me to see what's happened to Derby in the last year, but they seem to be picking up now and Paul Jewell is a quality manager.
"He's obviously taking his time from when he came in to get his squad together, but he seems to be doing it now.
"They are turning the corner, bombing up the league now and playing some good stuff by all accounts. So yes, it will be a tough game."
Derby travel west down the A50 in presumably low spirits after former Stokie Martin Paterson bagged a brace for Burnley in a 3-0 victory over the Rams to leave them with one point from their last three games and anchored down in 15th place in the Championship.
But even that moderate run of form is nothing compared to the horrors of last season, which threatened to spill over into this.
Having been banished from the Premier League with those 11 lonely points to their name, they kicked off this season with three defeats and a draw to briefly threaten the unthinkable spectacle of back-to-back relegations. The inevitable revival duly followed as manager Paul Jewell, having exhausted every expletive to describe his players, steered the Rams towards possible play-off contention before their latest run of mishaps.
Of the 17 players on view at Burnley on Saturday, only substitute keeper Stephen Bywater and defender Lewin Nyatanga pre-date Jewell's arrival just over 12 months ago.
There remains a further small cluster of players left over from the heady days of promotion under Billy Davies in May 2007 – including one-time Stoke loanee Stephen Pearson – but they are currently consigned to the treatment room, presumably for shellshock.
Jewell's battery of signings were somewhat overshadowed by the curious acquisition of Robbie Savage (recently returned from a loan spell at Brighton), but others like former Stoke winger Kris Commons have enjoyed sufficient impact to force himself into the Scotland squad thanks to some tartan-clad grandparents.
Jewell now boasts the princely sum of six league wins in total, but at least Derby's mentally-scarred supporters were mercifully spared the indignity of going a complete year without a league win... by all of four days.
Comments