Linfield’s record haul of Irish League titles will remain at 56. Larne’s burgeoning total of Gibson Cups bloats from one to two.
The Blues simply had to win on Monday night to take the title fight down to the dying embers, but a powerful Andy Ryan penalty on 35 minutes in response to Kirk Millar’s dangerous left-sided corner being hooked into his own net by Inver Red namesake Leroy ensured a 1-1 draw and the defending champions’ continued status as holders.
Tiernan Lynch’s side are still three points clear with a still uncatchably superior goal difference on their Windsor Park rivals. They will lift the Gibson Cup following their home match against Coleraine on Saturday and, in the process, become just the second non-Belfast team in the Irish League’s long history to win back-to-back top-flight titles.
Ronnie McFall’s Portadown were the first in 1990 and 1991 – coincidentally, just a couple of days earlier, the Niall Currie-stewarded Ports themselves achieved promotion at the first ask back to the Premiership – and, over three decades later, the Kenny Bruce-backed Invermen emulate their feat and stay in with a chance of recording an Irish League record 92-point haul for the season if they beat the Bannsiders.
For Linfield, their focus is now on a cup double. After clinching the BetMcLean Cup in March by beating Portadown 3-1, the Irish Cup is now on their radar with a sell-out decider set for May 4.
They face their Final opponents Cliftonville at Windsor Park on the last day of Sports Direct Premiership action for the 2023/24 season, but to call it a dress rehearsal seems unfair.
After all, with 15,000 set to flock to the international arena for the first Blues-Reds Irish Cup showpiece in 90 long years, respective bosses David Healy and Jim Magilton are expected to ring the changes for what realistically is a dead rubber ahead of truly going toe to toe in the following weekend’s spectacle.
Keen to guard against injury, some fringe players will have the opportunity to impress their supremos and fight for their place in the starting line-up for the biggest-attended domestic football match in Northern Ireland this millennium.
One young star who had his audition on Monday night, however, passed with flying colours.
Just 16 years of age, Healy was all too happy to throw in Braiden Graham up top alongside Matthew Fitzpatrick – and it proved a masterstroke.
He became the 138-year-old institution’s youngest-ever player at 15 years and 137 days old when he debuted versus Dungannon Swifts in March 2023 and, ironically enough, he scored his first senior goal against Larne at Inver Park in this season’s BetMcLean Cup quarter-finals.
He tormented them on home soil, too. Pacey, energetic, hardworking and instinctive, he was leading the charge without fear nor relent – and for a lad born in November 2007 and is still to sit his GCSEs, he gave Cian Bolger and Ro-Shaun Williams, two centre-backs with extensive pedigree in the English game, quite a few headaches, particularly early on.
The Belfast kid is Everton-bound and the Irish Cup Final is likely to be his swansong, but the Northern Ireland youth international has a big future and stands as another shining advert for Linfield’s prided quality of youth production.
“He’s brave and he’s ‘goals, goals, goals’, he prowls in and around and he’s a deadly finisher,” men’s international record goalscorer Healy raved after Graham’s debut at Stangmore Park 13 months previously.
If the equally resilient Graham realises his true potential – and boy does he have time on his side to do just that – then he will be a huge asset for club and country for a long, long time to come.
Featured image from Linfield FC Website.
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