Cliftonville captain Rory Hale says the side will "be looking to make up for bad times" in Tuesday's County Antrim Shield final against Carrick Rangers (19:45 GMT).

The Reds' previous final appearance ended in disappointment after they sufferered a penalty shootout Irish Cup final defeat to Dungannon Swifts.

However, this season, the Reds were the 4-1 victors against Ballymena United in the semi-final to make the Shield showpiece for the first time since 2020 and they are also in the hat for the Irish Cup sixth round.

"It is another cup final and will be our fourth final in two and a half years," Hale told BBC Sport NI.

"This group is starting to get a feel for it, and it is a game we are really looking forward to.

"The last final ended up in a penalty shootout defeat so we will be looking to make up for the bad times."

The north Belfast side have bolstered their squad by the recent signings of Brian Healy, Liam McStravick and Joseph Toole.

However, it has been a challenging January for the Reds, who are without a win in their last five league games and were beaten by Tuesday's opponents 4-1 at home in their last outing.

"We have a really young group, and a number of the young boys are absolutely amazing at the minute, but cup finals are about winning on the day," he continued.

"We won't be taking Carrick lightly. We will be going into this game full steam ahead and taking them as serious as possible.

"We know their threats, they are good in attack and have experienced pros in the back, so it is going to be a really difficult game."

There are eight points between the two sides in the Irish Premiership table with Carrick in 11th position and Cliftonville sitting sixth.

Despite their differing league positions and Carrick boss Stephen Baxter labelling his side as "underdogs", Cliftonville's assistant manager Gerard Lyttle disagreed that his side were favourites to win.

"I know the talk has been that Carrick are the underdogs, but that's nonsense and disrespectful to Carrick as they have earned the right to be here, as we have," Lyttle said.

"You only have to look at the recent final against Dungannon. We were the favourites and didn't win. Anything can happen on the night.

"We will not be getting drawn into that. It will be a tough game for us and it will be who performs on the night."