Cork City received a massive boost ahead of the beginning of their Europa League adventure next week with the announcement that defender Ryan Delaney’s loan spell has been extended until the end of the 2017 season.
Commenting on the news, City boss John Caulfield said: “We are delighted to have extended Ryan Delaney’s loan until the end of the season. He came in under the radar before the start of the season and he settled in very quickly, having an immediate impact. He has gone from strength to strength and has become a vital cog in our team, as we can see from the clean sheets we have kept.”
“As well as being a key part of our back five, he has also scored important goals for us, and everyone can see that he is developing into a tremendous player. To keep him to the end of the season, with our position in the league and Europe coming up, is fantastic news for us.”
“Also, with the disappointing news about Johnny Dunleavy’s injury in mind, it was very important for us to keep Ryan and I am very pleased that we have agreed this deal.”
“I would like to thank Burton Albion, and Nigel Clough in particular, who have been fantastic to deal with, and I hope it is a relationship that we can build on, because Burton are a really good club to deal with.”
“The fact that Ryan came to the club as a player unknown to many people and has just won the Soccer Writer’s Player of the Month award shows how well he has done, and we expect him to kick on now in the second half of the season and have an even bigger impact.”
John Caulfield also gave his thoughts on this weekend’s clash away to Derry City at Maginn Park. He said: “Derry are well in contention and, up to last Friday, they were on a phenomenal run. We know how difficult it is, they are a very good side and they have a lot of pace and energy in their team. They score quite a lot of goals, so we know they are very strong in midfield and attack.”
“It is a massive game from our point of view. It was very pleasing to come back from the break and put in such a good performance last week. As I keep saying, if we play at the level that we have been doing, then I think that we will be happy, but if we don’t, we will drop points.”
“This is the biggest game of the season for us. The league is half-way through and we have put ourselves in a good position; now we are going into the second half and we have started well, so all our focus now is on Friday.”
While the news about Ryan Delaney is a big boost, fellow defender Johnny Dunleavy has been ruled out for the foreseeable future after suffering a knee injury last week, while Alan Bennett, who also picked up a knock in the same game, is a doubt and will be assessed ahead of the game.
Photo Credit: Doug Minihan