Gault sets sights on ‘double’

LINFIELD’S Michael Gault is no stranger to winning titles, however, since the Lisburn man was given the honour of the captaincy for the 2011/12 season, last Saturday’s victory over Portadown, which clinched the Gibson Cup for the Blues once again, will have been that bit sweeter.

Gault – who was given the armband last summer – will get to raise the coveted trophy on the final day of the season when Big Two rivals Glentoran visit Windsor Park.

The local man has seven titles so far in his Linfield career, and the latest, Gault says, “means as much as the first.”

“We have to keep going and try and win more,” he added. “It is disappointing when you miss out on the title so we have to keep plugging away to make sure we retain it next season.

“We are delighted to get the job done.

“We were in control at 1-0 and then Portadown scored, but we showed our true spirit with Jamie getting the late winner to seal the title - brilliant.

“We wanted to get the league out of the way as soon as possible and we have managed that with a few games to spare.”

Gault admits the focus at the start of every season is to lift the title.

They have become experts in their field as far as that objective is concerned, with Linfield raising the league crown six times in the past seven seasons.

They have also gone on to claim the Irish Cup in every one of those seasons.

“The aim at the start of the season is to win the league and we have achieved that,” Gault said.

“It has been a great team effort from everyone involved so we are delighted.

“We have led for most of this season. We had couple of stumbles, against Cliftonville and Glentoran for example, but we always bounced back and stayed in front.

“We came back stronger each time so we deserve this success.”

And Gault insists the focus will be on continuing to fill Windsor’s trophy cabinet in the years to come.

“We have to keep going and trying to win as many trophies as possible. That’s what we want to achieve - we want leagues and Irish Cups,” he said.

“We won’t be resting on our laurels and we will probably be one of the first teams in for pre-season during the summer and we will go at it again.

“We will have Europe and then we will set our sights on the league again.”

Reflecting on his first season as captain, Gault plays down the role he played in

the club’s success.

“It has obviously been a good season as far as captaining the team goes,” he said.

“I had a bit of an injury earlier in the year but after Christmas I was playing well and I had more belief.

“As long as I am playing well then the captaincy looks after itself. It isn’t something I think about too much.

“All I focus on is the games. We can now look ahead to the cup semi-final on Saturday which will be very tough, but we want to reach another cup final.

“We have the chance to do that again so we will be all-out to beat Newry on Saturday.

“We want to be in that end-of-season showpiece against Crusaders.”