The 2017–18 Northern Ireland Football League Cup (known as the BetMcLean League Cup for sponsorship purposes) was the 32nd edition of Northern Ireland's football knockout cup competition for national league clubs, and the fourth edition of the competition as the Northern Ireland Football League Cup. This season's League Cup was contested by all 36 clubs of the three divisions of the Northern Ireland Football League. The competition began on 5 August 2017 with the first round, and concluded on 17 February 2018 with the final. The competition was sponsored for the first time by McLean Bookmakers.NI Football League
Ballymena United were the defending champions, defeating Carrick Rangers 2–0 in the 2017 final to win the competition for the first time. This season they reached the final once again, but were defeated 3–1 by Dungannon Swifts, who won the competition to record the first ever senior trophy win in their 69-year history.
Format and schedule The competition was played in a straight knockout format and was open to the 36 members of the Northern Ireland Football League. Replays were not used in the competition, with all matches using extra time and penalties to determine the winner if necessary.
RoundFirst match dateFixturesClubs First round 5 August 2017 4 36 → 32 Second round 29 August 2017 16 32 → 16 Third round 3 October 2017 8 16 → 8 Quarter-finals 15 November 2017 4 8 → 4 Semi-finals 30 January 2018 2 4 → 2 Final 17 February 2018 1 2 → 1
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 5 August 2017.
Second round The matches took place on 29 August 2017. The top 16 league clubs from the previous season were seeded in this round in order to avoid drawing each other.
SeededUnseededArds Ballinamallard United Ballyclare Comrades Ballymena United Carrick Rangers Cliftonville Coleraine Crusaders Dungannon Swifts Glenavon Glentoran Institute Linfield Portadown PSNI Warrenpoint TownBanbridge Town Dergview Donegal Celtic Dundela Harland & Wolff Welders Knockbreda Larne Limavady United Lisburn Distillery Loughgall Lurgan Celtic Moyola Park Newington YC Newry City Queens University Tobermore United
Third round The matches took place from 3–17 October 2017.
|colspan="3" style="background:#E8FFD8;"|3 October 2017
|colspan="3" style="background:#E8FFD8;"|10 October 2017
|colspan="3" style="background:#E8FFD8;"|17 October 2017
Quarter-finals The matches took place on 15 November 2017.
Semi-finals Both matches were scheduled to take place on 12 December 2017, however due to weather postponements they were played on 30 January 2018 and 10 February 2018.
|colspan="3" style="background:#E8FFD8;"|30 January 2018
|colspan="3" style="background:#E8FFD8;"|10 February 2018
Final The final was played on 17 February 2018 at Windsor Park.
References