The 2020–21 Irish Cup (known as the Sadler's Peaky Blinder Irish Cup for sponsorship purposes) was the 141st 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 since its inauguration in 1881. The competition began on 27 April 2021 and concluded with the final at

Mourneview Park Mourneview Park is a football stadium in Lurgan, County Armagh, Northern Ireland, and is the home ground of NIFL Premiership club Glenavon. The stadium holds 4,160 and was originally built in 1895. The 2008–09 Irish League Cup, 2010–11 ...

Lurgan Lurgan () is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, near the southern shore of Lough Neagh. Lurgan is about south-west of Belfast and is linked to the city by both the M1 motorway and the Belfast–Dublin railway line. It had a population ...

on 21 May 2021.

Glentoran Glentoran Football Club is a professional football club that plays in the NIFL Premiership. The club was founded in 1882. History Early history In 1914, Glentoran won the Vienna Cup, becoming the first United Kingdom team to win a European t ...

were the defending champions, after they defeated

Ballymena United Ballymena United Football Club is a semi-professional football club from Northern Ireland. Based in Ballymena, County Antrim, the team competes in the NIFL Premiership and plays home matches at the Ballymena Showgrounds which is owned by the ...

2–1 after extra time in the previous season's delayed final played in July 2020. This took their tally to 23 Irish Cup wins overall; their first for five years. This season they were beaten by

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were in ...

in the quarter-finals. Linfield were this season's winners, defeating

Larne Larne (, , the name of a Gaelic territory) is a town on the east coast of County Antrim, Northern Ireland, with a population of 18,755 at the 2011 Census. It is a major passenger and freight roll-on roll-off port. Larne is administered by Mid ...

2–1 in the first ever meeting between the two teams in the final. This extended Linfield's record of Irish Cup wins to 44; their first win since 2017. It also meant a sixth Irish Cup final appearance for

without ever winning the competition, extending that unwanted record. Since Linfield had already qualified for Europe via their league position, the berth for the 2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference League first qualifying round was redistributed to the 3rd-placed

2020–21 NIFL Premiership The 2020–21 NIFL Premiership (known as the Danske Bank Premiership for sponsorship reasons) was the 13th season of Northern Ireland's highest national football league in this format since its inception in 2008, the 120th season of Irish league ...

team.

Format and schedule

As a result of the

COVID-19 pandemic in Northern Ireland The COVID-19 pandemic reached Northern Ireland in February 2020. The Department of Health reports 3,445 deaths overall among people who had recently tested positive. The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency reports 5,029 where th ...

, this season's competition was played in a condensed format spanning just 24 days. Due to the pandemic lockdown restrictions, all matches were played behind closed doors except the final, where a limited attendance of 1,000 was permitted. The competition was significantly reduced in size with only 32 clubs initially invited to take part. This included the 24 clubs across the

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 The Northern Ireland Football League Championship (known as the Lough 41 Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the second level of the Northern Ireland Football League, the national football league in Northern Ireland. Clubs in the Championshi ...

, the four semi-finalists from the 2019–20

Irish Intermediate Cup The Irish Intermediate Cup is a Northern Irish football competition for teams of intermediate status, including NIFL Premiership reserve sides. It is a straight knock-out tournament and is currently sponsored by McCombs Coach Travel. The curre ...

, and the next four highest-ranked teams from the previous season's league system. Extra time was also scrapped from this season's competition, with the winner of all matches level after 90 minutes being decided by a penalty shoot-out. The competition was initially scheduled to begin in January 2021, however, it was postponed due to the fact that no clubs from outside the NIFL Premiership had the 'elite' sporting status required to allow them to play matches during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. The competition was given the go ahead to start in April 2021 with only 26 entrants, after six NIFL Championship clubs, namely:

Ards Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a type of respiratory failure characterized by rapid onset of widespread inflammation in the lungs. Symptoms include shortness of breath (dyspnea), rapid breathing (tachypnea), and bluish skin color ...

, Dundela, Harland & Wolff Welders,

Institute An institute is an organisational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations ( research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes ca ...

, Newry City AFC and Queen's University subsequently withdrew from the competition, having not played a competitive fixture since March 2020. The six clubs originally drawn to play them in the first round were therefore given a bye into the second round.

Results

''The league tier of each club at the time of entering the competition is listed in parentheses.'' *''(1) = NIFL Premiership'' *''(2) = NIFL Championship'' *''(3) = NIFL Premier Intermediate League'' *''(NL) = Non-league (clubs outside the

Northern Ireland Football League The Northern Ireland Football League (commonly abbreviated to NIFL), known historically, and still colloquially, as the Irish League, is the national football league of Northern Ireland. The Irish League was originally formed in 1890, with the l ...

– levels 4–7)''

First round

The draw for the first round took place on 17 December 2020, with the matches played on 27 April and 1 May 2021. All clubs entered in the first round, with the 32 teams drawn randomly into 16 ties. Six

clubs (

, Dundela, Harland & Wolff Welders,

, Newry City AFC and Queen's University) later withdrew from the competition, with their opponents given a bye into the second round. , - , colspan="3" style="background:#E8FFD8;", 27 April 2021 , - , - , colspan="3" style="background:#E8FFD8;", 1 May 2021 , -

Second round

16 clubs entered the second round – the 10 first round winners along with the 6 clubs that received byes. The second round draw was made on 1 May 2021, with the matches played on 8 May 2021.

Quarter-finals

The eight second round winners entered the quarter-finals. The quarter-final draw was made on 8 May, with the matches played on 11 May 2021.

Semi-finals

The four quarter-final winners entered the semi-finals. The draw was made on 11 May 2021, with the matches played on 18 May 2021 at

Final

The final was played on 21 May 2021 at

for the first time; the 13th different venue to host an Irish Cup final. This was the first Irish Cup final since 1975 to be staged outside

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

, and only the second final since 1995 (the other final being 2015) that was not played 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 renta ...

. This was as a result of maintenance work being carried out at the stadium, including a new playing surface being laid, in preparation for hosting the

2021 UEFA Super Cup The 2021 UEFA Super Cup was the 46th edition of the UEFA Super Cup, an annual football match organised by UEFA and contested by the winners of the two main European club competitions, the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League. The mat ...

in August.

and Linfield met in the Irish Cup final for the first time. Larne appeared in the final for the sixth time, having finished as runners-up in each of their previous five appearances in the final. This was their first final since 2005 when they were defeated 5–1 by

Portadown Portadown () is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The town sits on the River Bann in the north of the county, about southwest of Belfast. It is in the Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council area and had a population of a ...

. Linfield reached the final for the 64th time; the first time since

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...

when they defeated Coleraine 3–0 to win the cup for the 43rd time and secure a league, Irish Cup, and

County Antrim Shield The County Antrim & District Football Association Senior Shield (more commonly known as the County Antrim Shield) is a football competition in Northern Ireland. The competition is open to senior teams who are members of the North East Ulster Fo ...

treble. Linfield defeated

2–1 to win a record 44th Irish Cup, thanks to first-half goals from

Shayne Lavery Shayne Francis Lavery (born 8 December 1998) is a Northern Irish professional footballer who plays as a striker for Blackpool and the Northern Ireland national team. He has previously played for Everton, Falkirk and Linfield. Early and p ...

and Joel Cooper. Larne lost in the final for the sixth time, extending their unwanted record of having appeared in the most Irish Cup finals of any club yet to win the competition.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2020-21 Irish Cup

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

2020–21 in Northern Ireland association football 2020–21 European domestic association football cups

2021 in Northern Ireland sport