Dunmurry Rec boss Dan Thornton said it will be a " Christmas miracle" if his side overcome Bangor to lift the Steel & Sons Cup for a fourth time.
The Northern Amateur Football League outfit take on the high-flying Seasiders in the showpiece final at Seaview on Christmas Eve and the scale of the task in hand is not lost on Thornton.
But the Dunmurry Rec boss insists they will do all they can to bring the trophy home for the first time in over two decades.
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"The last team won it in 1998 and they will all be here to cheer us on, which will be special," said Thornton.
"For us to emulate what they achieved would be a Christmas miracle.
"We're going to give it everything we've got and see if it's good enough.
"We know Bangor could beat anyone, they will certainly be the favourites, and rightly so.
"I've known Lee (Feeney) a lifetime, he's a good manager and has assembled a good squad.
"For us it's about going out on the day, giving it our all and hoping it's good enough."
It has been an incredible few months for Dunmurry since Thornton and his backroom team took over.
After escaping relegation at the end of last season the new coaching team took their position and Thornton is pleased with the progress they have made in such a short space of time.
"When we took over in the summer we had a five-year plan, believe it or not in our fifth year we had put in reaching the Steel & Sons Cup final," he said.
"We've done it in five months instead, which is remarkable.
"It's only human nature the players will be excited, but it's our job as the management team to keep their feet on the ground.
"It's a final and nobody ever plays a final like they do any other game, but we have to try and do that as best we can.
"We only took the job in the summer and we played Immaculata in what was only our second game.
"They beat us 5-0 and I looked at them and I thought that's probably the best team that has beat us, myself personally as a manager.
"So for us to take them to extra time and penalties and beat them to reach the Steel & Sons final was a remarkable achievement.
"Cup finals are there to be won and you don't need to play well to win them.
"We'll give it a good go but we're under no illusions about how tough it will be.
"We will have a game plan like we do for every game.
"It would be naive of us if we thought we could go to a cup final and open up against a team like Bangor with the resources and players they have.
"We'll have a game plan to try and neutralise their threats and be effective in our own attacking aspects.
"If it needs to go to penalties we've come through a couple of rounds of that already, so we're ready for every obstacle that comes our way.
"On the day though no matter what you do against a top team like Bangor one of their top players could come up with a moment of magic and win it for them.
"We're under no illusions as to how hard it will be to stop them, but we're certainly going to try and impose ourselves on the game as well."
Like they have been in every round to date, Dunmurry Rec go into Christmas Eve's final as underdogs, but that is something Thornton and his players will embrace when they face Bangor.
"How we got to the final has been an absolutely crazy ride," he said.
"We have drilled the message of the pressure being on the opposition from the very first game against Ballynure.
"Every game we've played has been away from home and there have been tougher tests with every round.
"We have taken all the pressure off the players completely.
"This club stayed up last year on goal difference, for us to be sitting five months later in the biggest cup competition in Northern Ireland, bar the Irish Cup, is a remarkable achievement."
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