Linfield's Aaron Burns wants Irish Cup Final starting jersey

The 24 year old took his goal tally for the season to 23 when he pocketed a glorious hat-trick in the semi final win over Lurgan Celtic at Windsor Park on Saturday.

With only five league games remaining before the glamorous day out against Glenavon on May 7, Burns is ready to up the ante as the Blues chase down what could be a league and cup double.

“I’ve never started in an Irish Cup final,” he said. “I was only 19 on our last appearance in the final. I came on as substitute (in the win over Crusaders).

“So I’m looking forward to hopefully getting a starting shirt this time. I’ll be working hard in training over the next few weeks to try and get into that starting eleven.

“Glenavon are a great side. We have found it difficult to play against them this season.

“They are flying at the minute. But regardless of the opposition, it’s a cup final, it’s never going to be easy. We’ll do our homework on Glenavon . . . but someone has got to stop Kevin Braniff (scorer of four goals in the other semi final against Crusaders)!

Although the Blues to wait unto the 60th minutes before nudging ahead against battling Celtic, Burns was always confident of getting the job done.

“We didn’t play very well in the first half, to be honest,” he said. “We were told at half time to be patient, calm down and forget about the first 45 minutes.

“The gaffer said our quality and our fitness levels would prevail . . . thankfully they did.

“There was a certain amount of frustration crept into our game. I think it is because we’ve been play really well over the past few weeks and we have been able to blow teams away.

“Lurgan Celtic played five across the back and they did frustrate us. We got back to our game plan in the second half and we then started to open them up a bit and thankfully I was able to put away the chances.”

Burns reckons the Blues now faces a massive finale to the season. They travel to Seaview next week to face Crusaders, hoping to eat into the five point gap that separates the teams.

“It’s all to play for,” he added. “We would like to be a bit closer to the Crusaders at the top of the table. We missed out in a few chances to close the gap

“But we have five big games remaining. Anything can happen. The top six are up there for a reason -- be cause they are all quality teams. Any of those teams can beat the other.

“Next week is a massive game. I don’t think it’s a title decider, but it could be a title pointer. It will definitely have a big impact on where the Gibson Cup will go.”

Linfield boss David Healy hailed Burns’ ‘fox-in-the-box’ instincts.

“Aaron’s got a great track record at the club over the past four or five years,” said Healy. “He’s either been top goal scorer or second top. He’s a threat. Technically, Aaron is very good . . . he’s good in the air and he’s got that little bit of pace.”

I expect that of Burnsie week in, week out.

“Hopefully, he can keep it going unto the end of the season.”

Linfield: Ross Glendinning, Haughey, Callacher, Waterworth (Moore 90), Lowry, Millar (Quinn 67), Burns, Ward, Clarke, Mulgrew, Smyth (Fallon 82).

Subs not used: Bates, Reece Glendinning.

Lurgan Celtic: O’Neill, Wilson, Rodgers, Hutchinson, Cochrane (McCabe 87), Malone, Barton, McVeigh, Fitzpatrick ( S Devlin 75), Haire, Conaty (N Devlin 75).

Subs not used: Seeley, O’Hara.

Referee: Mervyn Smyth (Belfast).