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 Clearer Water Irish Cup for sponsorship purposes) is the primary Association football, football single elimination, knockout cup compet ...

, the premier knockout cup competition in

Northern Irish The people of Northern Ireland are all people born in Northern Ireland and having, at the time of their birth, at least one parent who is a British Nationality Law, British citizen, an Irish nationality law, Irish citizen or is otherwis ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

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

Windsor Park The National Football Stadium at Windsor Park (officially the Clearer Twist National Stadium at Windsor Park for sponsorship reasons), or the National Football Stadium, also known as Windsor Park is a association football, football stadium in B ...

on 6 May 2017. Glenavon 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 , 'nook of the ferns'Flanaghan, Deirdre & Laurence; ''Irish Place Names'', page 194. Gill & Macmillan, 2002. ) is a town and Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish near the mouth of the River Bann in County Londonderry, No ...

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 The NIFL Premier Intermediate League (Known as the Playr-Fit NIFL Premier Intermediate League for sponsorship reasons) is the third level of the Northern Ireland Football League, the national association football league in Northern Ireland, and t ...

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 Sports Direct Premiership for sponsorship purposes, and Irish Premiership colloquially, is a professional association football league which operates as the highest division of the Northern Ireland Football L ...

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, Ards Rangers, Ballymoney United, Ballynahinch United, Barn United, Camlough Rovers, Crumlin Star, Donard Hospital, Dromara Village, Drumaness Mills, Dundela, Killyleagh Youth, Larne Tech. Old Boys, Lisburn Rangers, Maiden City,

Mossley Mossley (/ˈmɒzli/) is a town and civil parish in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England, in the upper River Tame, Greater Manchester, Tame Valley and the foothills of the Pennines, south-east of Oldham and east of Manchester. The town grew ...

Nortel Nortel Networks Corporation (Nortel), formerly Northern Telecom Limited, was a Canadian Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications and data networking equipment manufacturer headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario. It was founded in ...

Portstewart Portstewart () is a small seaside town in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It had a population of 7,854 people in the 2021 United Kingdom census. It is a seaside resort, neighbouring both Coleraine in County Londonderry and Portrush in Cou ...

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

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. 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. Matches played on 1 October 2016.

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.

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 became the first player in 48 years to score a hat trick in an Irish Cup final. Billy McAvoy had been the last player to achieve the feat, having done so for

Ards Ards (or ARDS, ARDs) may refer to: Medical * ARDS, Acute respiratory distress syndrome * ARDs, age-related diseases Places * Ards Peninsula, Northern Ireland ** Ards (territory), several historical territorial divisions on the Ards Peninsula ...

in their 4–2 win over

Distillery Distillation, also classical distillation, is the process of separating the component substances of a liquid mixture of two or more chemically discrete substances; the separation process is realized by way of the selective boiling of the mixt ...

in the 1969 final replay.

References

External links

Official site

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

Cup A cup is an open-top vessel (container) used to hold liquids for drinking, typically with a flattened hemispherical shape, and often with a capacity of about . Cups may be made of pottery (including porcelain), glass, metal, wood, stone, pol ...