The 2019–20 Northern Ireland Football League Cup (known as the BetMcLean League Cup for sponsorship purposes) was the 34th 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 sixth 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 35 of the 36 clubs that started the season in 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 10 August 2019 with the first round, and concluded on 15 February 2020 with the final. The competition was sponsored by McLean

Bookmakers A bookmaker, bookie, or turf accountant is an organization or a person that accepts and pays out gambling, bets on sporting and other events at agreed-upon odds. History The first bookmaker, Harry Ogden, stood at Newmarket Racecourse, Newmark ...

.NI Football League
/ref> Linfield were the defending champions, having beaten Ballymena United 1–0 in the 2019 final to lift the League Cup for a record tenth time. However, their defence of the cup came to an end after a defeat against

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 ...

in the semi-finals. Coleraine would go on to win the cup for the second time, with a 2–1 win over

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding ...

in the final. This was their first League Cup title in 32 years, since winning the 1987–88 competition - a new record for the longest gap between League Cup titles. Crusaders suffered defeat in a League Cup final for the sixth time - another new record in the competition.

Format and schedule

The competition was open to the 35 members of the

(NIFL). The top sixteen ranked clubs from the 2018–19 season (all twelve 2018–19 NIFL Premiership clubs, along with the top four clubs from the 2018–19 NIFL Championship) entered the competition in the second round as seeds. Of the remaining twenty NIFL clubs, eight of them were randomly drawn to face each other in four first round matches. The remaining twelve clubs, along with the four first round winners, made up the sixteen unseeded clubs in the second round. Lurgan Celtic were included in the original draw, but later withdrew from the Northern Ireland Football League for financial reasons. This meant that

received a bye into the third round. From the third round onwards, the competition operated in a straight knockout format. 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 first round matches took place on 10 August 2019.

Second round

The second round matches were played on 27 and 28 August 2019. The top 16 league clubs from the previous season were seeded in this round in order to avoid drawing each other. As a result of Lurgan Celtic's withdrawal from the league, Crusaders received a bye into the third round. , - , colspan="3" style="background:#E8FFD8;", 27 August 2019 , - , colspan="3" style="background:#E8FFD8;", 28 August 2019 , - , colspan="3" style="background:#E8FFD8;", 17 September 2019

Third round

The third round matches were played on 8 and 23 October 2019. , - , colspan="3" style="background:#E8FFD8;", 8 October 2019 , - , colspan="3" style="background:#E8FFD8;", 23 October 2019

Quarter-finals

The quarter-finals were played on 29 October 2019.

Semi-finals

The semi-finals took place on 3 December 2019.

Final

The final was played on 15 February 2020 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 ...

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2019-20 Northern Ireland Football League Cup Irish League Cup seasons League Cup