Ryan Delaney has been named SSE Airtricity/Soccer Writers' Association Player of the Month

Cork City FC defender Ryan Delaney has been named SSE Airtricity/Soccer Writers' Association Player of the Month for May. The 20 Year old defender has been a great acquisition to John Caulfield’s side since joining on loan from Burton Albion in January.

Since joining Delaney has been a rock for John Caulfield’s side as they have only conceded 9 goals since the season began and sit 18 points clear at the top of the table. As well as his defensive performances, the 20-year-old chipped in with three goals during the month of May as City won four of their five league outings and remain unbeaten this campaign.

Having been presented with the award by Leanne Sheill of Airticity, Delaney said: "It's nice to get this award, it shows that I have been doing something right.

"The main thing when I came here at the start of the season was to keep improving and step up my game to another level.

"Hopefully for the rest of the season, whatever lies, I can push on again and improve every game. Hopefully I can keep it going.

"The last month or so I feel like my performances have been getting a lot better. I feel a lot more confident and I bring that into my game on a Friday night. The main thing for me is to keep improving and hopefully push on again here in the next month or so.”

Speaking about his goal scoring purple patch of late, he added: "We've been doing a lot of work on the training ground on set-pieces so the main thing for me was to focus on my runs.” 

He went on further to say: "The deliveries into the box have been great, so I've just had to concentrate on making my run, get half a yard and get a touch on it."

In winning the award, Delaney fended off competition from Cork City team-mate Seán Maguire, who finished second in the voting. While Derry City star Aaron McEneff was third.