Jim Magilton has full faith in youthful Cliftonville side as Reds look to end 45-year wait for Irish Cup glory

​According to Irish League Stats Man on X, formerly Twitter, Cliftonville boast the Premiership’s third-youngest average squad age of 24.9 (that’s just 0.1 higher than joint-lowest pair Ballymena United and Dungannon Swifts) and Magilton has continued to show total trust in the club’s emerging stars.

Odhran Casey, who played twice for Northern Ireland U21s in the recent international break, and 20-year-old Shea Kearney have been two of the league’s shining lights this term while 22-year-old Ben Wilson still sits top of the goal charts having netted 17 times in his first Irish League campaign.

Supported by senior role models in the likes of Joe Gormley, Jonny Addis and Chris Curran, Magilton has created an environment at Solitude which allows youth to thrive and they’re still fighting for glory across competitions.

"They have been superb,” he said. “It's (age) only a number and we do have very good young players coming through and players that I think have a massive future at the club.

"You have Ryan Corrigan, Keevan Hawthorne, Leon Graham to name but a few and we're delighted with them.

"Odhran Casey has done great, Sean Stewart, Luke Kenny, Reece Jordan, Shea Kearney has had a tremendous year - they're all lads that we have always had faith in.

"A lot of really good senior players in the group have nurtured that and encouraged the younger players. They've been brilliant with them.

"We've no fear at all in throwing young players in. If we name them on the bench it's because we trust them - we've great confidence in them."

Every Cliftonville team since 1979 have had the same objective to end the club’s Irish Cup hoodoo and Magilton’s group are no different.

The North Belfast outfit have reached four finals since Tony Bell’s famous late winner against Portadown over four decades ago – most recently losing to Coleraine in 2018 – and Magilton has called on his players to embrace the occasion rather than be shackled by the weight of history.

"You want to be successful,” he added. “I'm as ambitious as I've ever been and I would dearly love to win an Irish Cup.

"If you win Saturday you have a final to look forward to and if you don't then you're looking at qualifying for Europe in the play-offs.

"There are eight cup finals left potentially and that's the way we're looking at it. Every game is massively important.

"There are cup finals everywhere you look and we have everything to look forward to.

"These lads have put themselves in a fantastic position, but it counts for nothing if you don't stand up now and go for it.

"That's the message - play with no fear, play with confidence and we've shown throughout the season that we're a threat for anybody."