Crusaders defender Billy Joe Burns believes winning a place in this year's Irish Cup final is "a bit of justice" for the pain the club suffered in last season's semi-final.
The Crues beat Cliftonville 2-1 in a tense last-four north Belfast derby to book a place in next month's decider.
It was a major contrast to last May when they lost in the semi-final in hugely controversial circumstances with goalkeeper Jonny Tuffey sent off in a shootout for being adjudged to have left his line for three spot-kicks.
While insisting the players need to look forward rather than backwards, Burns acknowledged the transformation in fortunes for the club and for Tuffey in particular.
"We don't talk about it too much because you can't keep looking back on the past, but we were due a bit of fortune and a bit of good luck," he said after a match in which he was credited with the winning goal.
"I think we got that tonight and it is just great to be in a final again. There was a wee bit of justice there for the team and for Jonny personally.
"He has been magnificent for us all year and has got better and better as the season has gone on. In the last 15 minutes he really took a lot of pressure off the back four which was great to see.
"A lot of credit needs to go to him. For a back four to have your keeper coming out and catching the ball from crosses, it makes a big difference for us."
Crusaders had to come from behind to win the semi-final after Cliftonville striker Joe Gormley gave the Treble-chasing Reds an early lead, and his striker partner Paul O'Neill had a goal disallowed before two scrappy goals late in the first half won the match for Stephen Baxter's men.
The first looked to be an own goal when goalkeeper Luke McNicholas seemed to palm the ball into his own net when trying to stop a Ross Clarke shot, while the second was bundled home from close range by a combination of Burns and Reds defender Luke Turner.
Crues captain-on-the-night Burns, who remarked tongue-in-cheek that the winner was definitely his, said reaching the cup final was a just reward after what he described as a difficult few years at Seaview.
"It's been a tough couple of years for the club, we have been down and written off a few times now," he explained.
"We get criticised a lot and we get overlooked but the boys in the changing room deserve the cup final for the hard work we do all year round. I think we have played really well this season.
"I'm getting to the stage of my career where I can't take these things for granted any more, so you have to enjoy every big game or cup final you get to because it could very easily be your last one."
Cliftonville, sitting second in the Irish Premiership table and locked in a three-way battle for the title with Linfield and Glentoran, looked comfortable for 20 minutes after taking an eighth-minute lead.
However, Crusaders began to play their way back into the match and Burns is in no doubt as to what tipped the dynamic of the game in their favour - and what helped them manage the game after the break.
"We know our own strengths. We know that getting the ball into the box is what we are very, very good at.
"There is no point in saying anything else and the minute we started doing that is the minute we started getting on top of the game. Big Lecks [striker Adam Lecky] or whoever it is we have up front are a handful to mark.
"We put two or three balls into the box and it looked like we could have scored any time we did. Thankfully we got the two and that is all we needed in the end.
"It was very, very tough. Cliftonville were throwing everyone on and it seemed like they had five or six forwards and runners coming from everywhere."
Crusaders will play either Ballymena United or Newry City in the final, with the other semi-final to be played on 13 March after Glentoran lost their appeal for being dismissed from the competition for fielding an ineligible player.
VIA BBC
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