BALLYMENA United boss David Jeffrey said his players took inspiration from the late Don Stirling to book their place in a repeat of last year’s Irish Cup final.
Stirling, a former secretary and vice-chairman of the club, passed away earlier in the season and Jeffrey implored the players to use his memory to go the extra mile in Friday night’s last four clash with Larne.
They did exactly that running out surprising, but comfortable 2-0 winners at Seaview to ensure it would be the same two finalists as last year, after Crusaders defeated Dungannon Swifts 1-0 on Saturday.
Craig Farquhar opened the scoring for the Braidmen on 69 minutes, before Dougie Wilson sealed the win with an exquisite free kick goal in the 83rd minute.
“I told the players if they needed something extra, if they were tiring, if they were struggling for energy to remember the late, great Mr Don Stirling,” he said.
“He was a marvellous, marvellous man. He was ‘Mr Ballymena United’. He did so much and we’re so proud to have his signature on our jerseys.
“He’s a massive miss to our club. It was also him and Mr John Taggart who brought Bryan McLaughlin and myself to Ballymena.”
Jeffrey was also delighted to upset the odds on the night, with Ballymena coming off the back of a long winless run in the league, while Larne hadn’t tasted defeat since a trip to Solitude on January 2.
However, the old adage of form going out the window in the Cup rang true and Jeffrey inspired United to book their place in third Irish Cup final in four seasons.
“There was no-one who thought we had a pup’s chance,” he added.
“While we had moments of good fortune in the game, it wasn’t a lucky victory, by any stretch of the imagination.
“I thought we did very well in the first half and could have come in a goal, if not two goals to the good.
“The fear is when you don’t take your chances then you can get caught with a sucker punch and playing against a team of Larne’s quality – the best team in the league as the table shows.
“However, the players went out again in the second half and they were tremendous.”
Jeffrey’s counterpart, Larne manager Tiernan Lynch had no complaints about the result and is calling on his players to use it as motivation for the league run-in as the leaders aim to claim a first ever Premiership title.
“It was a very un-Larne like performance and we got what we deserved,” he said.
“We have to dust ourselves off now and take it firmly on the chin. We got a lesson and we have to learn from that lesson.
“We have to take it into these last five games. We know it’s a difficult task in front of us, but we’ll be ready and we know what we have to do.
“If we’re going to be taken down, we’ll make sure we have to be taken down kicking and screaming.
“It’s now about making sure that we put this right and we’ll be going all to do that in the final five league games of the season.”
