Ex-Cliftonville starlet hoping to continue fine goalscoring form as Championship club look to produce another Irish Cup shock

Having progressed through the youth ranks at Glentoran and Cliftonville, where he captained their Olympic side in the Premiership Development League, Donnelly made the switch to Championship outfit Newington just over 12 months ago and has quickly developed into one of Paul Hamilton’s most influential players.

He has netted eight league goals in 19 appearances so far this term and his brace in a 2-1 victory over Dundela in the fifth round helped set up a cup trip to the Showgrounds.

Scoring goals from midfield is a true skill – one which Donnelly is rapidly developing – and he feels switching into the men’s game instead of continuing on the academy path has paid off.

"I was coming to the end of my time in the reserves at Cliftonville and I wasn't going to be involved with the first team,” he said. “I took a leap of faith and signed for Newington which has worked out for me.

"I've been loving it. We've a great changing room there with a few experienced boys like Richard (Gowdy), Eamonn Hughes, Kevin Bradley coming back and it has been great.

"I've been scoring goals which is something I didn't do last year. I wanted to add goals to my game and I'm happy with the form I'm in. I'm just trying to get myself into the box more and get into better areas.

"I always had a goal in me but never as much as this season – I don't know what's going on...I used to cross the halfway line and I didn't know where I was going!"

Being a boyhood Cliftonville fan, it was a dream for Donnelly to represent the Reds at youth level and he played in some talented squads during his time at Solitude.

"We had a brilliant side with Sean Moore, Jack Berry, Shea Kearney, Michael Morgan and Liam McStravick who is over with Airdrie in Scotland,” he added. “We'd a great team.

"We did well in the league but got to the semi-finals of the Harry Cavan Cup and got beat on penalties. That was a sore one to take. The year after when they got to the final I had already left.

"We'd a great side and Marc Smyth was the manager. He was really good for me when he came into the reserve set-up and helped me loads.

"My reserve career at Cliftonville is mostly down to him because I was nearly leaving before he came in. He gave me a chance, believed in me and thankfully I repaid him when I was at the club."

Newington return this afternoon to a competition they’ve enjoyed previous success in, reaching the Irish Cup quarter-finals in 2006 and six years later produced one of the competition’s greatest upsets by beating Glentoran at The Oval as an Amateur League outfit.

While victory at the Newry Showgrounds wouldn’t cause quite as seismic of a shock, Donnelly admits writing another chapter in the club’s history books would be special.

"The Newry clash is a big day for us and I think we've enough in the changing room to go and put on a good performance down there,” he said. "It's a day out for us as well with getting the bus down and all the boys will be out for breakfast in the morning.

"It's a big game for the club and if you win you're into the quarter-final of the Irish Cup. It's a big day and we will go down to try and give them a good game and get a result.”