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

, the premier knockout cup competition in

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since its inauguration in 1881. The competition began on 27 April 2021 and concluded with the final at Mourneview Park,

Lurgan Lurgan () is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, near the southern shore of Lough Neagh and roughly southwest of Belfast. The town is linked to Belfast by both the M1 motorway (Northern Ireland), M1 motorway and the Belfast–Dublin rail ...

on 21 May 2021.

Glentoran Glentoran Football Club is a professional football club based in East Belfast, Northern Ireland, that plays in the NIFL Premiership. The club was founded in 1882 and has since won more than 130 major honours. They are one of three Northern Iris ...

were the defending champions, after they defeated Ballymena United 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

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

Larne Larne (, , the name of a Gaelic Ireland, Gaelic territory)Larne/Latharna
Placenames Database of Ireland. is a to ...

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

Larne Larne (, , the name of a Gaelic Ireland, Gaelic territory)Larne/Latharna
Placenames Database of Ireland. is a to ...

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 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. At the start of the first official lockdown, the Department of Health (Northern Ireland), Department of Health reported 3,445 deaths overall among people who had recently tested ...

, 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

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and NIFL Championship, 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 cu ...

, 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:

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, Dundela, Harland & Wolff Welders,

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, 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 (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 ...

– 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 NIFL Championship 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 Mourneview Park,

Final

The final was played on 21 May 2021 at Mourneview Park,

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 ) 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 ...

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

. 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 in August.

Larne Larne (, , the name of a Gaelic Ireland, Gaelic territory)Larne/Latharna
Placenames Database of Ireland. is a to ...

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 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

when they were defeated 5–1 by

Portadown Portadown ( ) is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The town is based 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 ...

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

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when they 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 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 F ...

treble. Linfield defeated

Larne Larne (, , the name of a Gaelic Ireland, Gaelic territory)Larne/Latharna
Placenames Database of Ireland. is a to ...

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