The 2018–19 Northern Ireland Football League Cup (known as the BetMcLean League Cup for sponsorship purposes) was the 33rd edition of

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

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 ...

knockout cup competition for national league clubs, and the fifth edition of the competition as the

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

. This season's League Cup was contested by all 36 clubs of the three divisions of the

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

. The competition began on 4 August 2018 with the first round, and concluded on 16 February 2019 with the final. The competition was sponsored by McLean Bookmakers.NI Football League
/ref> Dungannon Swifts were the defending champions, after they defeated Ballymena United 3–1 in the 2018 final to win the competition for the first time and record the first ever senior trophy win since their formation in 1949. This season, Linfield were the eventual winners, defeating Ballymena United 1–0 in the final. Linfield were playing in the League Cup final for a record 13th time, and lifted the trophy for a record tenth time overall and the first time since they won the 2008 final 11 years earlier. Ballymena United appeared in the League Cup final for the third consecutive year - their fourth appearance in five years - and were consigned to defeat in the final for the second successive year and the third time in five years.

Format and schedule

The competition was played in a straight knockout format and was open to the 36 members of the

. Replays were not used in the competition, with all matches using extra time and penalties to determine the winner if necessary.

Results

''The league tier of each club at the time of entering the competition is listed in parentheses.''

First round

The matches took place on 4 August 2018.

Second round

The matches took place on 28 August 2018 and 12 September 2018. The top 16 league clubs from the previous season were seeded in this round in order to avoid drawing each other. , colspan="3" style="background:#E8FFD8;", 28 August 2018 , - , colspan="3" style="background:#E8FFD8;", 12 September 2018

Third round

The matches took place on 9 October 2018 and 30 October 2018. , colspan="3" style="background:#E8FFD8;", 9 October 2018 , - , colspan="3" style="background:#E8FFD8;", 30 October 2018

Quarter-finals

The matches took place on 13 November 2018, 20 November 2018, and 4 December 2018. , colspan="3" style="background:#E8FFD8;", 13 November 2018 , - , colspan="3" style="background:#E8FFD8;", 20 November 2018 , - , colspan="3" style="background:#E8FFD8;", 4 December 2018

Semi-finals

Both matches took place on 11 December 2018.

Final

The final was played on 16 February 2019 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 ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2018-19 Northern Ireland Football League Cup Irish League Cup seasons League Cup