Barry Johnston has revealed how Joe Gormley was "absolutely brutal" in his first training session with Cliftonville 11 years ago.
A fresh-faced Gormley joined the Reds from Amateur League club Crumlin Star in 2011 - and the rest, as they say, is history.
The now 32-year-old has gone on to become the North Belfast side's all-time record goalscorer, and won countless domestic honours including back-to-back league titles in 2013 and '14.
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Gormley is a Cliftonville legend, his name etched in the pantheon of legendary Irish League strikers.
But former teammate Johnston admits the initial signs were less than inspiring when Tommy Breslin signed the raw striker from the Star.
That is until Gormley got a chance to showcase his finishing skills.
Reflecting on the striker's first night at training 11 years ago, Johnston told Belfast Live's That's What I Call Football podcast : "Bressy would have said to me and George (McMullan), 'you boys look after him. Talk to him'. Joe was a skinny drip. He was 6ft with no beard.
"We were jogging around the back and doing possession boxes, and Joe was absolutely brutal.
"We were saying to Bressy, 'he is never going to make it' and 'he's never going to do'. But Bressy just said, 'wait to you see the shooting at the end'.
"I think Conor Devlin was in nets, and I swear I have never seen anyone hit a ball as hard in my life. Geordie was just 'get him signed up! Get him signed up now!'.
"And then there was Chris Scannell saying the opposite, 'get him out. He's not good enough'.
"So his first night's training was unbelievable. He was useless in the possession boxes but his shooting was lethal."
Gormley himself admits the initial signs weren't positive after he swapped the Amateur League for the Irish Premiership.
But one late cameo appearance against Dungannon Swifts changed everything.
"When I first started off at Cliftonville, I wasn't playing. I was playing here and there," Gormley said.
"It is like everything. When you join a new team you have to find your way and get your chance.
"I think at one stage I thought I probably wasn't good enough, and I just wanted to play football. I would have preferred to go back to Crumlin Star.
"I will never forget the day I got the chance to go on with about two minutes left. I had been thinking that's me done. I asked the kitman man how long was left in the game and he told me there were two or three minutes left and I thought 'for f*** sake'.
"As I ran on the ball came across to me and I smashed it into the top corner, and I thought 'this is good'. There would usually be about 100 people watching you play for the Star, and here I was in front of about 1,000.
"I just thought, 'nah, this is better'."
He added: "Cliftonville means everything to me.
"Even though I am record goalscorer, it still hasn't sunk in yet. Maybe it will when I retire in about 10 years."
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