The 2005–06 Irish League Cup (known as the CIS Insurance Cup for sponsorship reasons) was the 20th edition of the

Irish League Cup The Northern Ireland Football League Cup (BetMcLean League Cup for sponsorship purposes), also known colloquially as the Irish League Cup, is a national football knock-out cup competition in Northern Ireland open to all member clubs of the Nort ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

's secondary football knock-out cup competition. It concluded on 10 December 2005 with the final.

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 their fifth League Cup win last season; a 2–1 victory over Linfield in the previous final. This season both clubs reached the final again but this time Linfield came out on top by defeating the Glens 3–0 to lift the cup for the eighth time, with Glenn Ferguson scoring a

Hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

. This was the seventh, and to date, last time that both clubs met in the final. The 16 clubs taking part were divided into four groups of four clubs. The clubs in each group played each other at home and away. The top two clubs from each group then advanced to the quarter-finals where they played a single knock-out tie against another quarter-finalist. The semi-finals were played in the same format with the two winners of the ties advancing to the single match final.

Group stage

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2005-06 Irish League Cup 2005–06 in Northern Ireland association football 2005–06 domestic association football cups 2005-06