Cliftonville finishing in the bottom-six is "embarrassing" but the Reds can still have an "unbelievable season": Rory Hale
Cliftonville captain Rory Hale has described their league campaign as not being "good enough" as they make the visit to Carrick Rangers on Tuesday night.
The Reds missed out on a spot in the top-six for the post-split fixtures after an inconsistent run in the Premiership to date.
However, their performances in the domestic cups have been the total opposite as Cliftonville have already got the BetMcLean Cup in the trophy cabinet.
They will also contest the Irish Cup final in early May as Dungannon Swifts stand in their way of back-to-back triumphs in the competition.
When asked to sum-up the season to date, Hale replied: "We have a tendency this season to turn up when it really matters and we are continuing to do that.
"Our league campaign has not been good enough and as a group we have put pressure on ourselves to go out and win the cups.
"There's no dressing it up with how poor the league campaign has been. We are in a position which is quite frankly embarrassing to finish in the bottom six.
"It's something I'm not used to and I don't want to be used to either.
"There's been a lot of pressure on us and myself as captain to really kick on and win the Irish Cup.
"We've moved another step closer to doing that now."
Tireless Hale provided the assist for Joe Gormley’s opener in last Friday’s Irish Cup semi-final success against Ards.
The 28-year-old knows that if the Reds can end the season with two trophies – which includes European qualification – then it will mark an “unbelievable” campaign for Jim Magilton’s men.
He added: "We have a great chance to achieve history for ourselves by winning back-to-back Irish Cups and we can throw the League Cup in there too for a 'double'.
"Again though that only sounds good if you actually go out and do it.
"At the minute it's just been OK, but I could be standing here on May 3 saying it's been an unbelievable season, but until we do that it's just been OK.
"So you have to enjoy every cup final when it comes around because you can never guarantee when the next one will come along.
"Thankfully for us we have another to look forward to now at the start of May and we will definitely enjoy it."