Peaky Blinders Irish Cup final: Linfield v Larne (tonight, Windsor Park, 7.45pm)
LINFIELD forward Shayne Lavery is determined to double up and leave Irish League football on a high before embarking on a new adventure.
The 22-year-old Northern Ireland star has had a sensational campaign scoring 29 times for the Blues and spearheading their quest to win the Irish Premiership and Irish Cup.
Tonight, should the final versus Larne proceed at Mourneview Park, Lavery, from Aghagallon near Lurgan, will hope to be a knockout having already scored six goals in this season's competition and on Tuesday he will be an influential performer away to Coleraine when David Healy's men attempt to seal their fourth title in five years.
Healy has confirmed that Lavery is on the final lap of his Linfield career with a number of clubs from England and Scotland interested in signing him. Motherwell and Kilmarnock are amongst those mentioned though Blackpool are favourites.
Lavery insists the speculation hasn't distracted him and given his impressive numbers you have to believe him.
"It hasn’t affected me. None of the talk about my future is in my head at all," said the striker who signed for Linfield from Everton in 2019.
"I want the league and cup double and all the lads want the same thing. You want to be involved in these games come the end of the season and be in contention for as many trophies as you can."
Outstanding in the 3-0 semi-final victory over Ballymena, netting twice to follow up his hat-trick in the quarter-final against Loughall, Lavery says it was a special feeling sending the Blues into the decider at Mourneview Park, where he kicked off his career with Glenavon.
"To do it at Mourneview was great because it's where it all started. It's where I got picked to go to England and I’ve always loved the pitch." said Lavery, one of the most humble footballers around.
“I was actually saying on the bus on the way to the semi-final that I hadn’t won at Mourneview as a Linfield player. The two Glenavon games I was involved in we got beaten in so I really wanted to put that right. That’s gone now and hopefully we’ll have another win in the final."
While in the coming week Lavery is targeting his second title and first Irish Cup, Linfield captain Jamie Mulgrew is going for a staggering ninth league championship and seventh Irish Cup.
The Blues skipper, viewed even by opposition fans as a modern day Irish League great, says: "Whenever you’re at Linfield you are expected to fight on all fronts and every year we want to win every trophy that’s on the table.
“We’ve worked incredibly hard to get into the position we’re in now and we’re fighting on two fronts in the league and Irish Cup.
“If you had given us this situation at the start of the season, we would have bitten your hand off for it and many other clubs would love to be in this position as well.
“With the quality of the league and how competitive it is now, we feel very privileged that we’re in this position but we know nothing is won yet and won't be taking anything for granted."
