JIM MAGILTON revealed that the send-off his side receives from their supporters makes cup finals feel special and believes it is a reminder to new players what the club is all about.
The Reds’ squad and staff were given a noisy and colourful send-off from Solitude ahead of Sunday's Bet McLean Cup Final win over Glentoran and it is something that Magilton finds inspiring.
“I love how we start cup final days, when we go to the ground, and we get that send-off - it is just magnificent,” he revealed.
“The lads who are just in the building, it is a reminder to them that this club is a special club, and it belongs to the supporters and the supporters absolutely idolise the club.
“When you get that kind of send-off, it's inspiring. It should inspire them, and I think that’s what it did.
“We had 8,000 fans in the stadium. It was a sea of red and they were noisy. Obviously, the Glentoran boys were the same. It was a great occasion, and we managed to win with a real piece of quality.”
The Reds’ boss believes the plan to curtail influential Glens midfielder Fuad Sule was perfectly executed by Rory Hale and praised the impact of his captain.
“The game plan was always to get Rory around him [Sule] and get Sule facing his own goal,” Magilton outlined.
“Rory is such a clever player that he finds them little pockets of space. Parso [Alex Parsons] helps him a little bit, in terms of Sule having to check both shoulders so it frees Rory to go and play.
“When you get players of that quality in those pockets of space, they can really hurt the opposition.
“We did it really well in the second half of the Glentoran game at home where he had a major influence on the game.
“If you can disrupt him [Sule] and shift him out of that central zone, you can really affect the game, and we managed to do that today.”
Magilton was also keen to single out match-winner Joe Gormley for special praise and felt the increased noise on losing attackers Ronan Hale, Ben Wilson and Sam Ashford in the summer was unfair on his available striking options.
“Joe is so low maintenance, high output,” said Magilton.
“It was well documented what we lost in the summer, but I had this thing that it was slightly disrespectful to the ones that remained.
“To get Ryan Curran after a year out, we can only imagine what he must have been going through.
“I remember seeing a picture of Ryan Curran running on in the Cup final last year, and then there is a picture of Ryan Curran desolate that I have.
“It is a reminder even this game, even though the highs and he was overjoyed, but devastated he didn’t play, and he didn’t know if he was going to play.
“I had Ryan Curran, Joe Gormley and Rory Donnelly, and I just felt that these guys were outstanding players, and it was a reminder to them that they are outstanding players.
“Joe is nursing whatever Joe is nursing and we’ve had to manage him, like we’ve had to manage Ryan and the boys.
“He will never tell you how uncomfortable he may be feeling and that is a credit to him. They all want to play and that is a really, really important thing. They need to be ravenous for days like this and want more.”
