Jamie Mulgrew says it’s a privilege that the words ‘Linfield’ and ‘double’ are being uttered in the same sentence again at the end of a gruelling season.
David Healy’s men, who face Larne in tonight’s Sadler’s Peaky Blinder Irish Cup final in front of 1,000 fans at Mourneview Park (7.45pm), are chasing silverware on two fronts.
A blue riband success followed by a positive result at Coleraine in the league on Tuesday would see the Big Two giants celebrate a first domestic double in four years.
Mulgrew’s full focus is always on the next game, but he accepts it’s in Linfield’s DNA to be chasing multiple honours at a defining stage of the campaign.
“When you’re at Linfield you are expected to fight on all fronts,” said the Blues captain. “It’s what you’re expected to do and what you’re supposed to do.
“Every year the aim is always to try and win every trophy on the table.
“If you had offered this situation to us at the start of the season, we would have bitten your hand off and many other clubs would love to be in this position.
“With the quality of the league and how competitive it is now, we feel very privileged that we’re in this position heading into the final couple of weeks of the season.
“We’ve worked incredibly hard to reach this point and it’s a positive that we’re still fighting for major honours on multiple fronts.”
While Linfield need just two points from their remaining two league games - Coleraine and Cliftonville away - to clinch the title, Mulgrew is taking nothing for granted.
“We haven’t won anything yet and in football, things can change very quickly,” he said. “A positive scenario can turn into a very negative one very quickly.
“Listen, we’re under no illusions. We know that and we take nothing for granted, especially with the quality there is in our league.”
Remarkably, it was Larne who put the Belfast club’s title champagne on ice with a 2-1 win over the Blues at Windsor Park last Saturday.
“Larne beat us last Saturday and it was a major disappointment,” he said. “But we had chances to win the game and (their goalkeeper) Conor Mitchell had the game of his life.
“They are a good side, they’ve beaten us a couple of times this year and it has all the makings of a really good, competitive final.
“From a neutral perspective, I’m sure it will be a really good spectacle.”
Remarkably, Mulgrew is chasing his seventh Irish Cup having lifted the trophy under Healy in 2017 and five times under former boss David Jeffrey.
“It would be very special to win the Irish Cup again - it’s a massive incentive,” he said.
