Cliftonville striker Joe Gormley will continue to score goals if he plays regularly and stays sharp, says Irish League goalscoring legend Glenn Ferguson.
Gormley is enjoying a new lease of life at Solitude this season, heading the Premiership goal charts with 13 strikes to his name.
The 35-year-old will be hoping to add to his tally when he leads the Reds’ attack against Larne on Saturday afternoon.
He scored an incredible 17th club hat-trick against Loughgall last weekend, taking his tally to a record 284 goals in 503 appearances for the north Belfast club.
Gormley stepped up to the plate again this season following the departures of Ronan Hale, Ben Wilson and Sam Ashford over the summer, resuming responsibilities as the main goalgetter for Jim Magilton’s side.
Ferguson is a kindred spirit, having played until he was almost 42 and scored 563 goals in 1,040 outings for Ards, Glenavon, Linfield and Lisburn Distillery during a glittering career.
Only Jimmy Jones struck more goals in the history of the League so Ferguson knows a thing or two about finding the back of the net.
He says he is delighted to see Gormley among the goals again and insists he can keep scoring, such is his ruthless instinct.
“Joe is a natural goalscorer and if he keeps his sharpness up, he will score more goals,” says ‘Spike’.
“It’s all about playing regularly for a striker, particularly when you are in your 30s.
“You need to be sharp and you get that by playing regularly.
“Joe wasn’t playing as much as he would have liked last year and he probably benefited from the three strikers leaving in the summer.
“I’ve seen his goals, he’s been doing it for years and I’m delighted for him. I’m delighted to see players like Joe and Jamie Mulgrew at Linfield standing out at their clubs, despite them not being as young as they once were.
“Joe’s a great lad. He’s quiet and, from talking to people I know, he hasn’t griped about not playing as much as he would have liked, he’s always trying to help other players.
“One thing that helped me when I got older was pace, or a lack of it in my case.
“A lot of players rely on pace when they are young and fit and once that goes, your game can suffer.
“Because I wasn’t blessed with pace ever in my career, I didn’t have to adapt as much as I got older.
“When I was at Linfield, I played with younger players like Davy Larmour, Chris Morgan and Peter Thompson.
“They had the legs so I would drop deep to get the ball, play it wide to maybe Mark Picking or Stuart King and then get into the box for the return ball. It helped me play as long as I did.
“Joe has younger players around him to do the same and Cliftonville are playing the right way for him; get down the flanks and pull the ball back to him in the box.
“He and Liam Boyce worked well together when Cliftonville won back-to-back titles, now Joe can lead the line on his own because he has adapted. His finishing is top drawer.”
Quality is quality, no matter what age the player is, and a clever football mind can compensate for a lack of a turn of pace.
There is a greater emphasis on fitness in the modern game but a good manager will know how to get the best out of seasoned veterans, as Ferguson recalls about his time at Windsor Park.
“We were lucky at Linfield, older players like myself, Noel Bailie and Winkie Murphy,” he says.
“David Jeffrey was a hard taskmaster and he added a third night’s training on a Monday night to keep fitness levels up.
“But to be fair to David, he didn’t ask me, Winkie or Noel to come in on the Monday night.
“We were all settled down at the time so he knew he could trust us to look after ourselves, and it worked.
“The three of us were fortunate in that we played every week, so we were sharp every week.
“Obviously we were playing in a good team with good players around us, and we enjoyed great success together.
“When I left Linfield in 2009, I joined Lisburn Distillery where my friend Tommy Wright was manager.
“I played until May 2011, two months short of my 42nd birthday — but it wasn’t my choice!
“I wanted to get into the coaching side of things but after my first year at Ballyskeagh, Tommy asked me to register as a player as well.
“I did it for him and I ended up playing 40 games that year!
“I played 40 games in my first season and 40 in my second, and scored 28 goals for Distillery. That’s around one in three. Not bad for a team that didn’t create many chances with a 41-year-old upfront.”