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The man whose strike brought about a dramatic conclusion to last season’s County Antrim Shield action can’t wait to return to the competition tomorrow.

Ryan Curran was, of course, the last-gasp hero when his strike in the depths of injury-time earned Cliftonville a 2-1 win over Ballymena United in January’s Final, which had looked set for extra-time courtesy of Thomas Maguire’s equaliser just 85 seconds earlier.

The Reds begin their defence of the Shield in tomorrow’s first round date with Knockbreda at Solitude and Curran is counting down the minutes until the 2020/21 campaign kicks off.

“We’ve obviously all been looking forward to the start of the season for a very long time but I think the fact we’re defending a trophy adds a wee bit more to the first game,” he explains.

“We’ll be expected to beat Knockbreda, we know there’s no pressure or expectation on them, so we have to be focused on making sure we perform the way we need to in order to get the result that we want and then hopefully do the same again for the quarter-final on Tuesday night.

“Then, before you know it, you have a semi-final to look forward to in the near future and that would set us up well for the start of the season in terms of getting a bit of momentum and giving us a good mental boost ahead of the game with Glentoran next week.”

Cliftonville v Knockbreda
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