Return of the native boosts Portlaoise title charge

PORTLAOISE are not about to rest on the laurels of winning a Leinster club football title, according to returned star Martin Delaney.

Delaney home after a spell in Chicago is already planning for the meeting with Ulster champions Crossmaglen following Sunday's victory over Skryne.

"There's always a chance," Delaney said. "Crossmaglen are next and you can only take one game at a time. Ulster sides coming down don't make anything easy and we know that. We've got two months for them and we'll keep plugging away at it. Hopefully, we'll come up trumps."

Last weekend's victory was a remarkable chapter in Delaney's footballing career.

Having captained Laois' minors to All-Ireland glory in 1996, Delaney was widely accepted to be the best underage player in the country and was thought to have a glittering inter-county career awaiting him.

However, the midfielder had always harboured a deep desire to sample life Stateside and he followed his heart soon after an U21 All-Ireland defeat to Kerry and remained across the Atlantic for the next five years.

But the lure of football proved too strong and he returned to the club and county fold. Though only used sparingly by Laois boss Mick O'Dwyer this season, Delaney has shown increasing flashes of his old potential in Portlaoise's run to the Leinster title.

And the 26 year-old leaves you with no illusions that last weekend's victory over his old club Skryne ranks up there with any of his former glories.

"This is sweet. It's one thing being away with the county but when you're in with the club boys it's a whole different thing.

"Tommy Conroy and Niall Tully and the rest of the lads are a great management team and I have the utmost respect for them. They took us on at the start of the year and brought us on, Everyone stuck together, even when things weren't going so well earlier in the year at times."

Being a former Skryne underage player meant Delaney's name featured heavily in the pre-match build-up. That hype had little effect after all he scored a superb goal after 38 minutes. "I was running up and down all day and I knew it would have to come into my path at some stage. Usually they go wide but this time luck was on my side when I hit it.

"There was a bit of argy bargy stuff out there but, at the end of the day, you just go out and give it your best and see how it goes. We're all still friends now after the game.

"I went over and shook those boys' hands afterwards."

Delaney's old clubmates very nearly denied him his moment of happiness. Despite trailing by seven points at the break, Skryne pegged the favourites back to within three.

"We built up a huge advantage in the first half with those first eight points," Delaney added. "We started off so well and we hit them hard, going in so far in front at half-time was what made it for us. The amazing thing is that everything we tried to do seemed to work for us. Skryne weren't really let play.

"We hung on a little bit in the second half but we expected that."