The fact Joe Gormley continues to shine in the Irish League at 35 comes as no surprise to Jim Ervin, who will have the unenviable task of trying to find a solution to stop Cliftonville’s talisman when his Ballymena United side visit Solitude on Saturday afternoon.

Having played against Gormley on many occasions and now dealing with him from the dugout, Ervin is well aware of the threat posed by one of the Premiership’s modern-day greats, inching ever-closer to 300 Reds goals after netting in Tuesday’s 3-1 win over Carrick Rangers – a strike which brought his league tally to 17 for the season.

Gormley is enjoying his best top-flight return since the 2019/20 campaign and could yet sail past the 20-goal mark for the fifth time in his career with a fruitful end to this league campaign.

He continues to be the man for the big occasion, scoring the winner as Cliftonville defeated Glentoran in the BetMcLean Cup final last month – sealing his fifth League Cup crown in the process – and also netted to help Jim Magilton’s progress past Ards into a second consecutive Irish Cup showpiece decider.

placeholder image — Jim Ervin tussles with Joe Gormley during his time playing for Carrick Rangers. (Photo by INPHO/Declan Roughan)

Despite his consistent greatness, Gormley has somehow still had his doubters over the years, but Ervin was never one of them and feels the former Peterborough United striker doesn’t always get the credit he deserves for a remarkable career.

"No I'm not surprised (he has scored so many goals) - I'm surprised that people have doubted him,” said Ervin. “It's credit to Joe.

"He has been questioned, not just this season but last season, and he always answers with his performances on the pitch and always scores goals.

"He knows where the back of the net is and that's one thing that will never change about Joe Gormley.

"You have to pay him close attention because if you give him any space or time in the box he will punish you.

"I'm not surprised that he has scored the amount of goals he has or that he keeps delivering.

"Until the day Joe retires, he will score you goals, no matter what level he is playing at. He's an incredible footballer.

"He's quiet so maybe he doesn't get the credit he deserves because he's a quiet person and goes about his business very quietly. I've so much respect for him as a player and person.

"I'm pleased he has got the amount of goals he has this season because of the amount of times he has been questioned - he always answers by scoring goals."

Ballymena are attempting to chase Cliftonville down in their pursuit of finishing seventh and securing the final European play-off spot.

A weekend win would complete the Sky Blues’ clean sweep over the Solitude outfit having triumphed in their three previous league meetings this term, which has been a mixed one for Ervin with the high of hitting the summit in October to the struggles of finding consistency.

Ballymena put together an eight-game winning run up to mid-October but since then have won just six of 22.

"It has been frustrating, topsy-turvy, up and down, but if you look across the league it has been like that for most clubs outside of Linfield,” reflected Ervin on their season to date. “Linfield have ran away with the league and there's not too many points separating the rest.

"A lot of clubs have struggled for consistency. We'll wait until the end of the season to reflect in-house to what we've done, what we've achieved, what our goals were at the start of the season to where we've ended up and that's how we will reflect on things.”