Irish Cup final 2025: Cliftonville’s Joe Gormley ‘doesn’t lose sleep’ over omission from last year’s final

Cliftonville captain Rory Hale is also eager to see Gormley have an impact in the cup final and praised the experienced forward’s mentality.

“The man never lets you down, I can’t remember the last time he missed a training session or let us down,” he said.

“He doesn’t care if he plays 90 minutes or one minute, he wants to make an impact.

“It would be great to win the cup final, but it would be even better to see that man have a big say in it.”

Hale was named man-of-the-match in last year’s final after an all-action display which helped end the Reds’ 45-year wait for an Irish Cup success.

He believes there is “probably a lot more pressure” on this year’s cup final than last year’s due to their difficult league campaign and need to qualify for Europe.

“Last year we had a really good league campaign, and we ended up qualifying for Europe before the split. This year it is a lot different; we’ve found ourselves in the bottom six which is really disappointing, so for European football this game means a lot,” he explained.

With the League Cup already secured, Hale has his sights set on a cup double, which he thinks would be a great achievement after a difficult campaign on and off the pitch.

“A lot has gone on this season, we lost so many good players and a good friend Michael Newberry, who is always in our thoughts, so to go and do a double with the circumstances this group of players has had would be amazing, but it is only amazing if we can win the trophy. We need to win.”