The 2016–17 Irish Cup (known as the Tennent's Irish Cup for sponsorship purposes) was the 137th edition of the

Irish Cup The Irish Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly referred to as the Irish Cup (currently known as the Samuel Gelston's Whiskey Irish Cup for sponsorship purposes) is the primary football knock-out cup competition in Northern Ireland. Ina ...

, the premier knock-out cup competition in

Northern Irish Northern Irish people is a demonym for all people born in Northern Ireland or people who are entitled to reside in Northern Ireland without any restriction on their period of residence. Most Northern Irish people either identify as Northern ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

since its introduction in 1881. The competition began on 19 August 2016 and concluded with the final at

Windsor Park Windsor Park is a football stadium in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is the home ground of Linfield F.C. who own the land the stadium is built on, while the Irish Football Association own and operate the stadium and pay Linfield an annual rent ...

on 6 May 2017.

Glenavon Glenavon Football Club is a Northern Irish semi-professional football club that competes in the NIFL Premiership. Founded in 1889, the club hails from Lurgan and plays its home matches at Mourneview Park. Club colours are blue and white. Gar ...

were the defending champions, after they lifted the cup for the seventh time by defeating Linfield 2–0 in the 2016 final. They were eliminated at the semi-final stage. The competition was won by Linfield, who defeated

Coleraine Coleraine ( ; from ga, Cúil Rathain , 'nook of the ferns'Flanaghan, Deirdre & Laurence; ''Irish Place Names'', page 194. Gill & Macmillan, 2002. ) is a town and civil parish near the mouth of the River Bann in County Londonderry, Northern I ...

3-0 in the final.

Format and schedule

126 clubs entered this season's competition, a decrease of three clubs compared with the 2015–16 total of 129 clubs. 12 members of the NIFL Premier Intermediate League and 90 regional league clubs from tiers 4–7 in the

Northern Ireland football league system The Northern Ireland football league system is categorised into three levels: senior, intermediate and junior. Clubs attain intermediate status by fulfilling certain criteria (e.g. owning or leasing its own enclosed ground). Senior status requires ...

entered the competition in the first round, 26 of whom received a bye to proceed directly into the second round as necessitated by the number of participants. These clubs contested the first four rounds, with the eight surviving clubs joining the 24 senior

NIFL Premiership The NIFL Premiership, known as the Danske Bank Premiership for sponsorship purposes, and colloquially as the Irish League or Irish Premiership, is a professional association football league which operates as the highest division of the Northe ...

and NIFL Championship clubs in the fifth round. Extra time was utilised to decide the victor in any games that remained tied after 90 minutes, with a penalty shootout following if required.

Results

First round

Ties to be play on 20 August 2016.Tennent's Irish Cup
/ref> Twenty-six clubs received byes into the second round:

Ardglass Ardglass () is a coastal fishing village, townland (of 321 acres) and Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish in County Down, Northern Ireland, in the historic Barony (geographic), barony of Lecale Lower. It is still a relatively important fis ...

, Ards Rangers, Ballymoney United, Ballynahinch United, Barn United, Camlough Rovers, Crumlin Star, Donard Hospital, Dromara Village, Drumaness Mills,

Dundela Dundela Football Club, nicknamed "The Duns" is a semi-professional, Northern Irish football club from Belfast, currently playing in the NIFL Championship, and plays its home matches at Wilgar Park. The club's colours are green and white. The hom ...

, Killyleagh Youth, Larne Tech. Old Boys, Lisburn Rangers,

Maiden City Derry, officially Londonderry (), is the second-largest City status in the United Kingdom, city in Northern Ireland and the fifth-largest city on the island of Ireland. The name ''Derry'' is an anglicisation of the Old Irish name (modern ...

Mossley Mossley (/ˈmɒzli/) is a town and civil parish in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England, in the upper Tame Valley and the foothills of the Pennines, southeast of Oldham and east of Manchester. The historic counties of Lancashire, Cheshire ...

, Nortel, Portstewart, Richhill A.F.C., St Luke's, St Mary's Youth,

Seagoe Saint Gobhan has long been linked with the parish of Seagoe – recorded for instance as ''Teach dho-Ghobha'' – in County Armagh, Ireland. This saint - ''Gobban find mac Lugdach'' (-639), was primarily known for his abbacy of the monastery ...

Short Brothers Short Brothers plc, usually referred to as Shorts or Short, is an aerospace company based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Shorts was founded in 1908 in London, and was the first company in the world to make production aeroplanes. It was particu ...

, Strabane Athletic, Tobermore United and

Wakehurst Wakehurst may refer to: Places: *Electoral district of Wakehurst, electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales *Wakehurst (formerly known as Wakehurst Place), a property owned by the National Trust and m ...

. Maiden City later withdrew. , - , colspan="3" style="background:#E8FFD8;", 19 August 2016Tennent's Irish Cup First Round Preview
/ref> , - , colspan="3" style="background:#E8FFD8;", 20 August 2016 , - , colspan="3" style="background:#E8FFD8;", 21 August 2016

Second round

Due to there being an uneven number of clubs left on account of Maiden City's withdrawal, in the draw Dollingstown received a bye to the third round.

Third round

Ties played on 5 November 2016.

Fourth round

Ties played on 3 December 2016.

Fifth round

Ties played on 7 January 2017. The draw resulted in a clash between

Belfast's Big Two The Big Two derby, also referred to simply as the Big Two or Bel Classico, is the name given to the Northern Irish association football derby between Belfast clubs, Linfield and Glentoran. The derby is also sometimes referred to as the Belfast ...

Sixth round

Ties to be played on 4 February 2017.

Quarter-finals

The 8 winners of the sixth round matches entered the quarter-finals. The draw took place on 5 February 2017, with the matches to be played on 4 March 2017. As the only representative from the NIFL Championship, Warrenpoint Town was the lowest-ranked club to reach the quarter-finals.

Semi-finals

The 4 winners of the quarter-finals entered the semi-finals with the ties played on 1 April 2017 with Linfield and

advancing to contest the 2017 final.

Final

Linfield and

contested the final with Linfield winning 3–0 to secure the Cup for a record 43rd time, and claim their first league and cup double since 2012.

Andrew Waterworth Andrew Waterworth (born 11 April 1986) is a former footballer from Northern Ireland who is the interim manager of the Northern Ireland women's national team. Club career Hamilton Academical Waterworth joined Hamilton from Lisburn Distillery in ...

became the first player in 48 years to score a

hat trick A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mecha ...

in an Irish Cup final. Billy McAvoy had been the last player to achieve the feat, having done so for Ards in their 4–2 win over

Distillery Distillation, or classical distillation, is the process of separating the components or substances from a liquid mixture by using selective boiling and condensation, usually inside an apparatus known as a still. Dry distillation is the heati ...

in the 1969 final replay.

References

External links

Official site

nifootball.co.uk
{{DEFAULTSORT:2016-17 Irish Cup

2016-17 16-17 is a band from Basel, Switzerland. Their music combines punk rock, hardcore punk, jazz and industrial music. Biography 16-17 was founded in 1983 by Alex Buess, Knut Remond and Markus Kneubühler. When the group played its first conc ...

2016–17 in Northern Ireland association football 2016–17 European domestic association football cups 2016 in Northern Ireland sport 2017 in Northern Ireland sport