Departing Stoke City midfielder Rory Delap admits his famous long-throwing ability earned him selection more often than not.

The veteran leaves the Potters this summer.

"Yes, all the questions and all the talk got a bit boring in the end," he told The Sentinel, "but then again good things happened from all the publicity.

"And if I'm honest, I probably played more games because of the throw than I would have done if didn't have it.

"It wasn't just scoring from throws, it was also when the manager wanted us to put pressure on teams to just wear them down.

"You could see in the eyes of some teams they were thinking, 'We've had enough of this'.

"There was the well-documented story of Spurs goalkeeper (Heurelho) Gomes in tears in a game, while I also recall Villa keeper Brad Friedel seeing us win yet another throw and shouting, 'What the f*** is going on?' You could see teams had had enough."