The Irish Cup is the Holy Grail for Cliftonville Football Club and the players are ready to deliver, declares Reds midfielder Rory Hale ahead of tomorrow’s showdown at Windsor Park.
Linfield stand in the way of a first Irish Cup success for the Solitude team since the fabled 1979 team won it on April 28, 45 years ago.
The showpiece final is a sellout with over 15,000 tickets sold in a matter of days, such is the anticipation of a cup final clash between the Reds and the Blues.
Hale, who has enjoyed an outstanding campaign, grew up off the Antrim Road in North Belfast and insists he knows exactly what winning the cup would mean to supporters.
“I couldn’t believe the day of pre-sale when people were texting me saying the North Stand was sold out”, said the 27-year-old midfield general.
“It just shows how big the Irish Cup is to this club, to north Belfast and the community - this is the Holy Grail for this football club.
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“It’s always the Irish Cup and people always speak about it being the year it’s going to happen, so hopefully we can deliver on the big day.
“This season has been brilliant. It’s probably been the best season of my career.
“Jim (Magilton) and the backroom staff, Ricky (McCann) and Skin (Gerard Lyttle), have helped me go from 60-70 minutes to 90 minutes and the big thing is I’m now lasting full games.
“My fitness has gone up another level which has allowed me to show everybody in the league what I’m capable of doing instead of doing it for only 60 or 70 minutes.”
Tomorrow’s final promises to be an intriguing battle between David Healy’s seasoned campaigners and Jim Magilton’s young pretenders, who have excelled under the former Northern Ireland midfielder this season.
Cliftonville’s team is laced with talented young players who have already qualified for Europe; David Odumosu (aged 23, 30 games), Sean Stewart (21, 22 games), Odhran Casey (22, 33 games), Shea Kearney (20, 29 games) and Ben Wilson (22, 34 games).
As a senior player with previous cup final experience Hale sees part of his responsibilities as seeing the younger players through the occasion, but has backed them to pass the test with flying colours.
“Once you get on the pitch you have to let young players feel their way into the game - if you start telling them to do this and that it starts taking away from what they’ve been good at all season.
“Our young boys, the way they’ve grown into this league...it took me three or four years to develop into the player I am today in this league and these boys have done it in four or five months.
“Fair play to the management team for sticking by them, and they haven’t let it get to their heads as a lot of young players can.
“It’s up to them to feel their way into the game, feel their way into the atmosphere, the pressure and that’s what they’ll thrive on.”
