Cork City defender Ryan Delaney is waiting to hear whether he will spend the second half of the season on Leeside, but insists he will be happy wherever his short-term future lies.
The 20-year-old defender got on the scoresheet as Cork maintained their 100 per cent start to the season with a 5-0 victory over Finn Harps on Friday night, the club's fifth clean sheet in their last six league games.
Delaney is currently on loan from English Championship club Burton Albion, but with his spell in Cork due to end on 1 July, he is waiting to learn if he will be able to see out the season with John Caulfield's impressive side or return to the Nigel Clough-managed English outfit to take part in their upcoming preseason.
"My loan runs up until the first of July, so the two managers will be discussing to see what they think is best for me and my future to develop in the short term and in the long term as well," Delaney told RTÉ Sport.
"I'm enjoying it here and I enjoy it in Burton as well, so it's really up to the two managers and I'll be happy with whatever decision is made."
Clough has been keeping close tabs on Delaney's progress at Turner's Cross, and the Wexford man acknowledged that the opportunity to play European football with Cork might sway the decision.
"He's in touch with John quite a lot to see how I'm doing," Delaney said of the Burton boss, "and obviously getting goals and keeping clean sheets looks good for me and our defence here - hopefully we keep it going.
"To play European football at 20 years of age would be amazing for my career, and the position we are in at the top of the table, there's going to be pressure but you need pressure to improve as a player so I think it's a great situation to be in.
Harps boss Ollie Horgan refused to blame the arduous journey from Donegal for his side's second-half collapse, insisting that long away trips are just a fact of life for the club.
"I think the second goal is the one that killed us. We were competitive until that," Horgan said.
"But after that we were very poor. It was disappointing that we couldn't get to them in the last 20 minutes, but there is a big gap in standards in that last 20 minutes. Not so much up to that, but the better team won by a mile.
"The one thing the lads don't complain about is the journeys. Cork have to come up to us as well. There's obviously restrictions with the budget on overnights and that, we have to pick and choose very wisely what we can do.
"It's not ideal but it's part of it. But I don't think it's an excuse here. If we had stayed down for the week I don't think we'd have gotten a result."
