Jim Magilton insists Cliftonville should be motivated and inspired - not intimidated - to end club's wait for Irish Cup glory after Portadown victory

Luke Wilson’s own goal and Sam Ashford’s late strike resulted in the Reds booking their spot in the last-four and much of the pre-match build-up to the semi-final will once again centre around the year 1979.

That was the last time the Solitude outfit lifted an Irish Cup crown by beating the Ports 3-2 in the showpiece decider at Windsor Park and Magilton will be hoping to round off his first season in charge by granting the club’s faithful supporters their cup wish.

"It should motivate and inspire you, not intimidate you,” he said. “You should embrace that and every Cliftonville team since 1979 will have spoken about this and losing finals has been heart-breaking for them.

"Our supporters were magnificent tonight to a person - absolutely magnificent. We're going to need that and need it in a semi-final against whoever we get. It's about the next step, which is a semi-final and I'm looking forward to see who we get, and we'll go for it."

Magilton played in some significant matches during his own illustrious career, including a 1999/2000 First Division play-off victory against Barnsley at Wembley Stadium with Ipswich Town alongside making 52 appearances for Northern Ireland.

He’s now enjoying more big occasions in the dugout and loving every single moment of it.

"It's a wonderful feeling (being in the semi-final),” he added. “I absolutely love it.

"I've been lucky to play in one or two big games and it should always be something that inspires and not intimidates you. You want to win every game.

"These lads deserve immense credit. They've had to pick themselves up after two defeats...you're going into a quarter-final, it's a live game on TV, maybe people fancy an upset.

"I don't think it would have been an upset because they've beaten six Premiership clubs this season. I'm loving every minute of it."

Cliftonville came into the clash at Shamrock Park on the back of two consecutive Premiership defeats to Linfield and Dungannon Swifts – results which led Magilton to believe that their title hopes are now over with seven matches remaining.

They were able to bounce back to winning ways in County Armagh and their Irish Cup record remains spotless this term with the Reds yet to concede a goal in triumphs against Coleraine, Loughgall and Portadown while scoring nine in the process on a march to the semis.

Magilton reaffirmed the positives of what has been a stellar campaign to date, which includes netting more (70) than any other Irish League team to date, throughout this week and his players produced the goods.

"The message was belief, reaffirming the positives, trust in each other and there's no need to panic,” he said. “We put ourselves in that position through really good attacking play and trying to keep the back door closed.

"We've been too open and too easy to play against. We talk about intensity with and without the ball which is part of our principles and we haven't done that.

"When you're playing against good players and coaches they sense that. We lost two games and we can't argue with it."