Rory Delap paid tribute to everyone at Stoke after Stoke'e promotion to the Premier League on Sunday for sticking by him during his early spell at the club.

The City midfielder broke his leg on his home debut for the club but the medical staff helped him back to fitness and he has gone to be one of the Potter's best players this season.

Delap skippered the side during their 0-0 draw with Leicester which sent the Potters up and the Foxes down to League One for the first time in their 124 year history.

Speaking to the club's official website, Delap said: "Hopefully I've repaid the club now after what they've done for me.

"I said when they did stick with me I'd like to pay them back for how well they treated me.

"I was in a bad place but someone must be looking down on me and it's worked out.

"I'd have taken the leg break for this feeling."

The former Sunderland man has had his fair share of ups and downs in his career, but ranks Stoke's success as his main highlight.

"It means everything to be honest," said Delap. "The feeling is something I've never felt in football.

"I've been around a while now and I've had some good times but this has eclipsed them all.

"It's the biggest achievement of my career. I've had a couple such as promotion and getting to the cup final with Southampton.

"This eclipses all that, especially after what happened last year."

The Republic of Ireland international insisted he was already raring to go next season.

"I'll have a couple of weeks off. Once you've had a break then you can settle down then start to get excited and ready for pre-season.

"It'll be a big task, but I'd rather have that than to not have made it on Sunday.

"It's a big gap I think everyone knows that at the moment.

"Only Sunderland are doing well from who went up last year but we are looking forward to the challenge.

"With the team we've got at the moment and the attitude of the players, no one is going to come here and have an easy game.

"If you ask anyone this season who the most difficult team they've played this season, I reckon about 90% of them will say us."

City boss Tony Pulis kept other results away from the players but the reactions of the crowd gave the players an idea of what was going on.

The fans spilled on to the pitch before the final whistle after hearing that Hull had lost at Ipswich.

"When the fans came on a couple of them said the Hull game had finished I knew we'd done it then but it was a little bit like Colchester last week when it was nearly done but it was a great feeling in the end.

"I'll have a few beers this week, all the lads deserve it.

"The fans were tremendous and hopefully we can get gates like that every week.

"Hopefully we can give them plenty to cheer about."

Delap reserved special praise for the manager for his part in the Potters' achievement this season.

"We had a great season last season, we achieved a lot, but people thought we wouldn't challenge for the playoffs this year.

"We've proved everyone wrong and that's down to the manager, he's stuck to his way and it's worked. It's down to him at the end of the day.

"He's got to rely on the players to go out there and do what he says but everything has come together this season, everyone has done their job."