"I would love to play in the final": Joe Gormley eager to play a role this time around and help beloved Cliftonville retain Irish Cup crown

The Reds marksman was an unused substitute in last year's decider as Cliftonville ended a 45-year wait to finally lift the famous trophy after a 3-1 extra-time win against Linfield.

After the departures of Ronan Hale, Sam Ashford and Ben Wilson last summer, Gormley has stepped up to the plate and been in devastating form this term after netting 20 goals in all competitions, scoring the winner in the BetMcLean Cup decider against Glentoran in March.

Whilst admitting he was delighted to see his boyhood club win the competition last year, Gormley has his eyes set on being named in the starting line-up this time around as they take on Dungannon Swifts tomorrow afternoon.

"Definitely especially after not playing last year," he responded when asked if he had extra motivation to be involved this year.

"As I always say when Cliftonville win I win. I love playing for Cliftonville, it's my club.

"I would love to play in the final, maybe even start it but it will be up to Jim on the day.

"It's going to be tough, there's a lot of boys fighting for spots, but hopefully I can continue to score goals and cement my place in the team.

"As I always say, whenever I do play games I know I'll score goals, but it's obviously getting the chance to play in those games.

"This year I've proved I can score at any age and long may that continue. Hopefully I can keep that going in the final."

Gormley acknowledged that Cliftonville’s recent big game experience is “important” but that the Swifts possess enough good players to become Irish Cup winners for the first time in the club’s history.

He stated: "It's going to be important but Dungannon are a great side.

"You can see their form in the league, they are in the Irish Cup final and it's going to be a tough game.

"But it's a game we are looking forward to, we won the cup last year, we are the holders and we own it so to speak.

"Hopefully come May 3 after 5pm or so, the cup is returning back up to north Belfast again.

"We will see what happens but it's going to be another big game and we know Rodney has Dungannon playing exceptionally well.

"It's a game that I and the team are looking forward to.”

The 35-year-old is closing in on 300 goals for his beloved Reds and revealed how winning back-to-back Irish Cup will create even more history.

"With our league form not being great for most of the season this has given us an opportunity to get into Europe, which is what the club needs,” he continued.

"We should be competing for titles every year and challenging for Europe.

"This is a great chance for us to create history. Before last year you kept hearing about 1979, but we created a little bit of history of our own with the win.

"If we were to win it again this year then '79 might be forgotten about a bit because we would be creating more history, and that's what we aim to do.”