Cliftonville’s BetMcLean Cup final hero Joe Gormley felt Michael Newberry “was here with us” as the Reds secured silverware success by beating Glentoran while captain Rory Hale also dedicated the victory to their team-mate who passed away in December aged 27.

Since Newberry’s death, Cliftonville’s players have worn the number five on their shirts while one of the first things skipper Hale did after Sunday’s win was hold up a Newberry top while celebrating with the club’s supporters at Windsor Park.

It was also on display as Hale held the League Cup aloft while Newberry’s presence was felt in the changing room pre-match too, providing the Reds with further motivation to deliver for someone who Gormley hailed as a “massive character”.

Club legend Gormley was introduced off the bench to score his seventh goal across five League Cup finals, tucking home a pinpoint pass from 17-year-old Ryan Corrigan, and the 35-year-old admits all their success is driven on by a sense of delivering for the memory of Newberry.

placeholder image — Cliftonville's Conor Pepper sporting a tee-shirt in memory of former player Michael Newberry following victory over Glentoran in the BetMcLean Cup final. (Photo by Andrew McCarroll/Pacemaker Press)

"Michael Newberry was a massive character in our changing room,” said Gormley. “There are a lot of boys who were a lot closer with him than I was but he was my team-mate, a friend and with the loss of Michael it was hard for us.

“Rory hit the nail in the head in the huddle before the match that the number five on our jersey means a lot to us.

"He was here with us most definitely. I know that for a fact.

"Everything we do throughout the season it is for him or it will be in the back of our minds that we will try and do as much as we can to remember Michael Newberry. He means an awful lot to all the boys at Cliftonville.”

Newberry arrived at Cliftonville from Linfield last summer and Hale, who collected his first trophy as Reds captain, had the former Newcastle United youngster in his thoughts throughout the day.

"His shirt was the first thing we all recognised this morning when we got on the bus,” said Hale. “NIFL had put up a lovely tweet that his shirt was up and everyone just looked at each other.

“Not many teams have a current team-mate that passes away, never mind that young and the way this group of young players have dealt with losing a team-mate and losing a housemate has been absolutely remarkable.

“You could give them a bye ball for a poor few games because who knows what is going on in their head. Honestly every single player has done Michael Newberry proud today and he was definitely in all our thoughts.

“When you are having a tough day and you think the world is against you and you are in a bad mood...then you walk into a changing room and you see Newberry 5 and you think ‘It’s not the end of the world. Some people are getting it tight and I’m only having a bad 20 minutes or half an hour’.

"Then you think Michael’s shirt is there and he should be sticking it on and going out there and celebrating slide tackles and putting his heart on the line for whatever team he played for. That was the type of fella he was.”