Donegal native Adrian Delap followed in the footsteps of local soccer players, in years gone by, when he scored at the Brandywell on Friday night – but he is adamant that ‘there is still a long way to go’.
The 19-year-old striker, who was brought on after 54 minutes to replace Ally Roy, scored a bizarre goal to open his account for the Candy Stripes – appealing for a penalty only to realise the ball had already travelled beyond the goalkeeper.
Delap raced onto Aaron Splaine’s pass and, with Delap having been taken down, the ball got past the St Pat’s goalkeeper Brendan Clarke.
“I have no idea what happened to be honest, I don’t know,” he laughed. “I turned around to claim for a penalty and I saw Ronan Hale running towards me and, from then, I just went sort of crazy to be fair,” he said.
Adrian Delap
Last years Ulster Senior League Player of the Year has been impressing his manager this season in training and was given the call when City’s main striker was hauled off with a suspected shoulder injury.
“You hope that your chance comes but whenever you’re on the bench you believe that most of the starting eleven will finish it out. Thankfully, Kenny (Shiels) give me the shout today and I could help the team some way.”
It was a case of job done on Friday night from Delap’s point-of-view as he attempts to nail down a more featured role in the senior team.
“Whenever you come off the bench you want to make an impact of some sort and, thankfully, I did that scoring a goal.
“You have to take confidence from whatever way it comes, but hopefully Ally (Roy) will be raring to go again soon because we need everybody in the team pulling in the one direction,” he added.
Born in Ray, between Ramelton and Rathmullan, Delap managed to maintain the Donegal connection, with yet another native from the county scoring for the Brandywell outfit.
Followed by a chuckle, the 19-year-old said: “We’ll see what happens, there is still a long way to go, but, hopefully, I can get a run in the team and see where it goes from there.”
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