Victorious Bet McLean Cup-winning Linfield captain Jamie Mulgrew says the Blues have not given up on winning the league this season because it is in the club’s DNA.
The evergreen midfielder lifted the trophy at Windsor Park on Sunday after coming on to take the captain’s armband from Kyle McClean.
Linfield and rivals Glentoran could not be separated over the course of normal time and the game looked set for a penalty shootout until Chris McKee won and converted a penalty in the 117th minute.
Mulgrew was delighted to win his 26th senior trophy in a glittering career over two decades at Windsor Park but he insisted there is more business to be done before the season end.
Linfield are eight points behind leaders Larne in the Sports Direct Premiership with six games to go and while Mulgrew accepts it is a big ask, he believes the Blues must believe.
“Who knows? Who knows what could happen? I don’t know”, said the revered midfielder, who turns 40 in June. Who knows?
“We just need to be the best version of ourselves and that’s to win every match there is going. And look, that’s normal at Linfield.
“That’s what you’re expected to do anyway. You would hope – hope - that today would give us that belief and that confidence that we’re capable of doing it. You would hope so.
“We’re part of this football club at this moment in time and we as players have a responsibility to carry on the history of this football club.
“It’s nothing to be afraid of. It’s something to relish and enjoy, carrying on the success and making this club more successful, more historic than what it is.
“We had an opportunity to do that on Sunday. People won’t like me saying this, but the most realistic opportunity of getting silverware this year was on Sunday, and it’s added another trophy to the history of this football club.
“I’ve said before, more often than not, that’s what this football club does. If we’re involved in a final, the odds are stacked with us with regard to the history that we win.
Glentoran shaded the first half and had more opportunities to score, but Linfield had their own chances either side of the half-time interval.
After ten minutes of the second half, the two old foes virtually cancelled each other out in many areas of the park in both normal time and extra time.
Arguably, Linfield’s substitutes – Mulgrew, McKee, Dane McCullough, Sean Brown and Adam Frizzell – had more of an impact on the final than the players Declan Devine introduced; Liam Burt, Daniel Larmour, Jordan Jenkins and James Douglas.
The final was just three minutes away from a penalty shootout when McKee scored from the penalty spot and Mulgrew said the game was always going to be tight.
“It’s very much fine margins. More often than not, we haven’t been on the right end of the fine margins.
“Sunday was was no different, it was a close game with fine margins But I think it was vitally important that we got on the right end of a final.”
