After Linfield defended their BetMcLean Cup crown at Windsor Park on Sunday, there was jubilation in the way you would expect a trophy win to be celebrated.
Any trophy is there to be toasted and, although a club of the Blues’ stature will never be content just to stop at one, they are moments for all to cherish.
The delight at associating yourself with a successful push for silverware will never leave you, no matter how great or small that honour is, and that feeling was reflected in the post-game thoughts of the most trophy-laden player in Irish League football right now.
Linfield captain Jamie Mulgrew has spent 19 years in the famous blue shirt and is closing in on the fabled 800-appearance marker, but having started and finished yet another Final, captain’s armband on shoulder, with more trophy joy against Portadown, it’s clear that his insatiable desire for silverware shows no signs of waning.
The 37-year-old, who has already extended his contract until the end of next season, was all smiles in his post-match presser having clinched his fourth League Cup and 23rd accolade in the famous royal blue.
“You never get bored of this, it’s what you’re in the game for,” the midfielder beamed.
“This is what you set out to do and dream of as a kid. Doing this is more important to me than the wage packet and everything else.
“For me, playing here and winning trophies is what I’ve always wanted to do, so to be able to do that is hugely satisfying.”
That mentality perfectly underpins Linfield as an institution. Trophies are par for the course; it’s what the club has done throughout almost 140 years of existence and, arguably, even just one is considered a disappointment depending on the context.
The Blues won this competition last year, yet they did not push on and defend the Gibson Cup to go with it, pipped to the post by Larne with the same opponents eliminating them from Irish Cup contention, too.
That’s disappointment. 12 months on, the south Belfast squad are in the last-four of Ireland’s oldest footballing cup competition and could well face the Invermen, who face Cliftonville, in the showpiece in May should they overcome Glentoran.
They are also two points behind Tiernan Lynch’s panel – who dropped their first points of 2024 in a goalless draw with Coleraine the day before Linfield’s Final – having played the same number of games, and the sides will face off at Windsor Park in the split in a potential title decider.
With that in mind, winning the BetMcLean Cup is timely for Linfield – no less than that many of their younger talents have now felt what it’s like to have a winners’ medal draped around their neck.
Rhys Annett (19) scored the Blues’ clinching third, Josh Archer (20) played the full 90 against the Ports, who he spent the 2022/23 season on loan with, while others such as Aodhan Doherty (17), Braiden Graham (16) and Ceadach O’Neill (15) have also played big parts when called upon.
That’s valuable for boss David Healy, and Mulgrew believes that taste of silverware is perfect fuel to spur Linfield’s next generation on.
“Hopefully, it continues to give them that hunger to continue to push to try and repeat the feeling it gives you,” he continues.
“I won my first league and Irish Cup when I was 19, and I think it gives you good grounding as well as giving you that experience of how to get over the line.”
One thing is for sure – they couldn’t have a better skipper to learn from.
After all these years, Mulgrew is still the go-to lieutenant on the pitch; the man who wears his heart on his sleeve and plays with the passion you demand from people in his position.
Still as reliable an engine room as ever in the centre of the park and with Kyle McClean making strides alongside him, how he conducts himself on and off the pitch will be key to Linfield’s efforts.
This latest in a long line of trophies for him is an ideal tonic for the collective, and it inspires confidence that the Blues’ battle for further honours before the season’s out is far from over.
Featured image from Linfield FC Media.
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