I witnessed a team win a cup final. I know, right? I didn’t think it was possible either. In front of almost 15,000 people at Belfast’s Windsor Park, Cliftonville won 1-0 after extra-time against Glentoran in the NIFL League Cup final.

My voice was hoarse from singing Build Me Up Buttercup over and over again — it’s an old favourite — and sweat lashed off me on the one allocated day of sunshine Belfast gets each month. And then I realised: I’d actually just watched the team I wanted to win in a cup final, and they actually did it, so perhaps Leeds United really are just a special case when it comes to faltering in big games.

With Leeds kicking off at Portsmouth at the ungodly hour of 12pm on a Sunday, it meant I had sorted my friends’ pre-match entertainment. I watched Leeds flounder to a 1-0 loss with a group of neutrals clad in Cliftonville jerseys who asked pertinent questions like, “Why didn’t yer man Meslier come for that ball?” and, “Is that number 11 always so bad?”

Thankfully, Cliftonville and Glentoran’s 3pm date at Windsor meant there was no time to wallow in Joel Piroe’s profligacy. It was the highest attended League Cup final ever seen here, almost 6,000 more than the year before between Linfield and Portadown. Both teams’ average attendance is a fraction of the numbers they brought to Windsor, but a cup final always brings out fans in their droves.

The Glens have considerable financial backing in the form of Ali Pour. He made his money across various sectors in Dubai before encountering Mick McDermott, a Belfast man who was assistant coach of Pour’s native Iran at the time. McDermott convinced Pour to buy Glentoran and return them from the brink of financial abyss. He has invested several million pounds into the club, but the on-pitch return has been minimal, winning only the Irish Cup in 2020 and this year’s County Antrim Shield. The league trophy is yet to return to the famed Oval stadium in East Belfast and a sixteen-year wait is certain to drag on for another year as David Healy’s Linfield cruise to the title.

On the other hand, Cliftonville are Ireland’s oldest club and play at Solitude, the oldest stadium on the island. They’re mostly semi-professional with a few recent imports on full-time deals like Australian attacker Alex Parsons. I don’t imagine you could convince a young lad to give up the Gold Coast for a part-time deal in Belfast, after all.

Parsons started with Ryan Curran, the striker who wore Glentoran down before giving way to Cliftonville’s all-time top scorer, Joe Gormley. The man known as Joe The Goal had scored 288 times for the club prior to Sunday’s match and is as close to a living saint as you’ll find in modern football. The 35-year-old is one of the semi-pros at the club, splitting his time between football and working with autistic spectrum condition children at Holy Cross primary school.

Gormley won two league titles with Cliftonville between 2012-14 before leaving for Peterborough, but he tore knee ligaments after only five games and missed the rest of the 2015/16 season. A brief loan spell at St Johnstone left him “disillusioned with football” and he returned home to his boyhood club in 2017.

Since then, he’s scored over 150 goals for Cliftonville and won several trophies. His 2023/24 season was considered poor by Gormley’s standards, despite managing twelve goals. At 35 years old, some started to write him off as yesterday’s man, even while playing a part in Cliftonville’s first Irish Cup triumph since 1979. Cliftonville lost both first-choice strikers last summer, but Gormley is enjoying a late career resurgence, even if he would argue how ‘late’ it really is. Seventeen goals make him the joint top scorer in the NIFL at the time of writing, defying nature and all expectations to roll back the years.

Think of Joe Gormley as 2020 Pablo Hernandez, lockdown Pablo. Logic dictates he shouldn’t have the physical attributes to consistently make things happen, but when he’s on the pitch there’s magic in the air. Gormley was only fit enough to make the bench after a few weeks injured, so Cliftonville manager Jim Magilton chose to use Curran from the start in the hope that his team were still in the game when Gormley’s name was called.

Glentoran have dangerous players throughout their side, but none more talented than Fuad Sule, their central midfielder who’s always here, there, and everywhere. Sule is the type of elite player you often find at this level, someone who could play at a higher standard but is comfortable where they are. If you pass the ball into midfield, Sule will be there. If you try and hit Glentoran on the counter, Sule will be there. He reads the game remarkably well and could lay a claim to being the best midfielder in the league, although Cliftonville captain Rory Hale might just pip him to that title.

While Sule is at his best breaking the game up and starting the Glens’ attacks, Hale is Cliftonville’s beating heart who provides goals and assists. Hale is someone who just generally makes things happen one way or another, but the first half of this final was tense, with minimal clear-cut chances either way as Sule destroyed anything Cliftonville — mostly Hale and the Aussie attacker Parsons — attempted to create.

The sun brought out the best (and worst) in the record cup final crowd. Pyro smoke filled the air from behind the Cliftonville goal as the youthfully exuberant group calling themselves Red Fanatics attempted to create a distinctly European feel in south Belfast. “I’d like to see how many of them are at Dungannon on Wednesday night,” remarked one of the seasoned veterans standing with me. It wasn’t a dig at the kids but a realisation that both sides’ attendance on the day was multiples of their usual crowds. The league is improving at a rapid rate, both in quality and attendances, but there’s something about cup final day that brings the ninety-minute wannabes out in their Stone Island goggle jackets.

Glentoran’s end had a similar feel. Lots of young ones clad in black, a big drum, and edgy flags. The vaguely Carpathian Brigade vibe clashed with the community feel that Glentoran prides itself on, but it was all for show — just like the other kids’ pyro display in the opposite end. Watching the ground staff crabbing across the pitch to remove flares with a shovel proved a welcome distraction from a half of football that threatened to suck the life out of the stadium.

Both sides were tense, more afraid of losing than motivated to take the game by the scruff of the neck. The nerves were evident early in the second half as Cliftonville lost the ball on halfway and David Fisher bore down on Lewis Ridd in the Reds’ goal, only for his effort to roll into the Welsh goalkeeper’s grasp. Cliftonville had a handful of chances right after Fisher’s miss, but the shots were often rushed and lacking in quality.

Rory Hale celebrated a crunching tackle on Glentoran’s Danny Amos right in front of the Cliftonville fans and was met with a deafening roar from the red wall in front of him, a moment that seemed to swing the momentum of the match. The Cliftonville end erupted again at the sight of Gormley standing on the touchline, ready to enter the fray in the 70th minute for Ryan Curran just as planned.

You could have forgiven the crowd noise for fading. The pre-game lubrication wasn’t followed up thanks to an under-staffed bar, folks unable to get their hands on a lukewarm pint of Carlsberg to take the edge off a frenetic match. Water bottles were ‘decanted’ for anyone lucky enough to get served, something which ended up making sense when both sets of fans clashed in the second half, throwing whatever they could at each other. To make matters worse, the geniuses involved in planning this match had created a ‘family section’ that they placed in the corner between the two sets of rioting fans. Thankfully, it subsided pretty quickly and all eyes switched again to the anxious action on the pitch.

Just as the Cliftonville fans began to quieten, a rallying cry of “fucking sing!” came from one of the familiar faces beside me. An immediate chorus of ‘Everybody loves Jonny Addis’ to the tune of Tiffany’s ‘I Think We’re Alone Now’ was belted out in honour of Cliftonville’s Rolls Royce of a defender. All was well again. It might be the catchiest football chant I’ve ever heard, closely followed by ‘Jim Magilton parties all the time’, a remix of the Eddie Murphy classic. Don’t ask.

Extra-time seemed an inevitability as Glens ‘keeper Daniel Gyollai continued to make important saves from Parsons, Shea Gordon, and others. Despite the best efforts of Hale and the very impressive Shea Kearney on Cliftonville’s right wing, they were unable to create a clear-cut chance that would remove Gyollai from the equation. The best opportunity for the Reds came when Jack Keaney flicked on a long throw to Gormley at the back post. Everyone expected Joe The Goal’s header to go in, perhaps even Gyollai, but he displayed incredible athleticism to keep it out and send the game into extra-time.

Another thirty minutes. Could anyone take it? I was sweating — even more than usual — and there wasn’t a mission of getting anything to drink. Oh God, what if it goes to penalties? I might wither away. Thankfully, it wasn’t to come to that. This is the part in the story where Leeds United would probably concede, or they might have lost 1-0 already. It is a final after all. Magilton introduced 17-year-old wiry attacker Ryan Corrigan in the 97th minute and, with his first touch, he set off on a driving run into the Glens penalty area, taking on three defenders — including Sule — before sliding the ball into the path of Gormley, who finished first time. 1-0 Cliftonville. Pandemonium.

As Gormley ran off celebrating, I briefly thought I might die among the flailing limbs that ensued in the North Stand. Kudos to whoever wrote the script for this one. The teenage sensation setting up the folk hero for what might just be the winning goal. The celebrations spilled on to the pitch as a young Cliftonville fan ran on and hugged Addis, living out some fans’ fantasy. Smoke bombs boomed in the vicinity of a poor YouTuber, standing pitchside with his phone on a stick and smiling through the pain of an almost certainly perforated eardrum.

Joe The Goal’s Hollywood moment spurred the Reds on. Corrigan broke down the right moments later and almost forced Johnny Russell into scoring an own goal. The inevitable Glentoran onslaught wasn’t enough to quieten the Cliftonville fans, who’d taken it upon themselves to get an a cappella version of Flip & Fill’s ‘Discoland’ going.

Magilton showed his experience in making timely changes, taking young midfielder Harry Wilson off after a tiring 110 minutes in which he complemented Hale to keep the Glens midfield occupied with defending, rather than creating opportunities. Coming on in Wilson’s place was Conor Pepper, for whom this final was about much more than merely football. Cliftonville defender Michael Newberry, Pepper’s close friend, passed away suddenly on 30 December, which is why the team’s jerseys adorn the number five on the front.

Pepper came on with a job to do: keep it steady and get through these last ten minutes. Everything seemed to be going to plan until Odhran Casey stopped a Glens counter-attack with a wild sliding tackle, giving them a free kick to swing in with less than two minutes remaining. The subsequent cross prompted ‘keeper Ridd to come for it, only to totally miss the ball and give Russell an open goal to aim at. To the dismay of some and delight of others, Russell put his chance over the bar. Nobody could believe it. The big screen replays only amplified the groans of disbelief, as well as the 8,000 or so sighs of relief from those in red. A single minute of added time was enough for Cliftonville to see out the game and win.

Cliftonville lifted their fourth trophy of the decade, a decent return for a club that isn’t close to being fully professional. Clips emerged of Joe Gormley walking into the sports hall at Holy Cross with the League Cup trophy, surrounded by kids screaming at a level normally reserved for bouncy castles or being told it’s pizza for dinner. Gormley was back at work in his ‘other job’ but with one eye on securing a cup double.

By the time you’re reading this, Cliftonville will have played Ards in the Irish Cup semi-final, Jim Magilton’s first and unforgettable trophy as manager. He’ll be hoping another cup win makes up for a poor league season as the Reds struggled to balance the various competitions with a squad gutted by outgoing transfers, a never-ending reality for the club. Still, days like those at Windsor Park will be remembered more than a 3rd place finish in the league or selling a young player like Sean Moore for a record fee to West Ham.

It’s a lesson that Leeds could learn from going into next season when — fingers crossed — the Whites will be in the Premier League. Rather than simply sacking the cups off as unnecessary distractions, I dream of a trophy being lifted by a Leeds player. But to do that, we’d need to get over our Wembley hoodoo, wouldn’t we? Let’s try doing that in something like the League Cup final next year, rather than this year’s play-off final, eh? ⬢