'I was 31 before people started to ask me about the throw, I don't know what I was good at before that, but it must have something!' Rory Delap explains how his throw-in morphed into a psychological assault in the Barclays era

"Rory Delap: The owner and the manager have to take a lot of credit, because Stoke were stuck in a rut in the Championship, but they made a decision to put money in without going stupid. Tony Pulis recruited a team of characters who would fight for everything and fit in with how Stoke wanted to be viewed tough and hard to beat, but we could play. Peter Crouch, Jermaine Pennant, James Beattie, Matty Etherington and Kenwyne Jones were all very good footballers. People think it was all set plays and throw-ins. It wasn't."

"When did you first realise you could throw the ball a really long way? RD: When I was playing for Carlisle's youth team. I used it at every club during my career, but in different ways at Stoke it only became notorious because we had eight or nine players who were 6ft 4in and very brave. But I used it at Carlisle, Derby and Southampton under Gordon Strachan he used to like it if I threw it as high as possible, so the opposition couldn't cl"

Rory Delap used an exceptionally long, flat, and fast throw-in to devastating effect, turning Stoke City's home ground into an intimidating fortress. A former schoolboy javelin champion, Delap deployed the throw across clubs including Carlisle, Derby and Southampton before its notoriety at Stoke. A serious leg break in 2006 preceded his return and contribution to Stoke's 2008 promotion. Tony Pulis assembled a physically imposing, combative squad that amplified the throw's effectiveness, with multiple tall, brave players converting throw-ins into attacking opportunities. The long throw functioned as both a tactical weapon and psychological assault, not merely as set-piece trickery.

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