Chelsea striker Liam Delap branded his open goal miss during Friday’s FA Cup fourth round clash against Hull City as ‘silly,’ admitting that he should have scored with his second attempt.
Chelsea put Hull City to the sword 4-0 at the MKM Stadium to book their spot in the fifth round. Despite the easy win, Delap trended for the wrong reason among the Blues faithful.
With the game still goalless, Delap pressured Hull City goalkeeper Dillon Phillips for the ball, and the latter’s attempted clearance was blocked by the striker. Delap started to celebrate, but the ball struck the underside of the crossbar and then bounced away from goal.
The former Ipswich Town man did manage to get the loose ball but showed no urgency to put the rebound into the unguarded net, as his effort was blocked by the recovering Phillips.
Speaking after the match, Delap joked about the bizarre moment, saying that he thought the ball had gone in.
“I swear, I almost ran off, I thought it was in,” he told BBC One. “I thought it went in, and then I was waiting for the ref to blow his whistle. Obviously, I should have put it in a second time. It's silly from me, but yeah, crazy.”
The 23-year-old, however, redeemed himself by responding with a hat-trick of assists, taking his goal contributions tally for the Blues this season to six in 24 appearances across all competitions.
Chelsea boss Liam Rosenior heaps praise on Delap after win over Hull City
Liam Rosenior was full of praise for Delap after the forward’s hat-trick of assists inspired Chelsea to an emphatic victory away from home. While a lot of Blues supporters were critical of Delap for not getting on the scoresheet, Rosenior lauded the striker’s work rate.
He said post-match:
“Top [performance]. To be a No.9, especially in a system that we play, it's not always about yourself. It's about bringing other people into play. It's about sometimes making sacrifice runs so other players get the space and I thought in terms of, again, he started our press so well. But it's nice in a way that you're singling so many different players out, which means it's a really strong team performance. And from 1-15, I felt it was a really, really strong performance tonight.”
Delap has scored just two goals so far this season, with his last coming in a 2-1 defeat at Fulham in early January.