2005 Setanta Cup

The 2005 Setanta Cup was the first edition of a club football competition featuring teams from both football associations on the island of Ireland. It was inaugurated as a cross-border competition between clubs from the League of Ireland in the Republic of Ireland and the Irish League in Northern Ireland.

2005 Setanta Cup
Country Northern Ireland &
Republic of Ireland
Teams6
Champions Linfield (1st title)
Runners-up Shelbourne
Matches played13
Goals scored33 (2.54 per match)
2006 →

The cup is sponsored by Setanta Sports; the Irish sports television network. The competition was launched with Setanta providing support for prize money (€350,000) and sponsorship (€1.6 million over 4 years).

For this season the cup was simply known as the Setanta Cup before being renamed the Setanta Sports Cup from 2006 onwards.

Glentoran beat Longford Town 2–1 in the first ever game of the competition on 15 March 2005. The first final saw Belfast side Linfield defeat Dublin's Shelbourne 2–0 at Tolka Park in Dublin on 21 May 2005 to collect the winner's prize of €150,000.[1]

Format

The teams would be split into two groups of 3 teams and play each other twice, once at home and once away. The winners of each group would play in a single game final, to be held in Tolka Park if at least one team from the Republic of Ireland was involved. If the final was played between two teams from Northern Ireland, the final would be held at Windsor Park.

Qualification

League of Ireland

Shelbourne qualified by winning the 2004 League of Ireland Premier Division title. Longford Town qualified by winning the 2004 FAI Cup Final. Cork City took the third spot by finishing second in the 2004 League of Ireland Premier Division.

Irish League

Linfield qualified by winning the 2003–04 Irish Premier League. Glentoran qualified by winning the 2003–04 Irish Cup. The third spot went to Portadown for finishing second in the 2003–04 Irish Premier League.

Following a draw (in which league winners were kept apart), the teams were placed as follows;

  • Group 1; Linfield, Longford Town, Glentoran
  • Group 2; Shelbourne, Portadown, Cork City

Group stage

Group 1
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1 Linfield (A) 4 3 0 1 9 6 +3 9 Advanced to final
2 Longford Town 4 2 0 2 4 4 0 6
3 Glentoran 4 1 0 3 6 9 −3 3
Source:
(A) Advance to a further round.
Glentoran2 – 1Longford Town
Halliday  48'
Parkhouse  65'		 (Report) Keegan  83'
Longford Town2 – 1Linfield
Paisley  6'
Myler  45'		 (Report) McAreavey  86'
Flancare Park, Longford
Linfield3 – 2Glentoran
Larmour  11'
King  35'
Simpson o.g.  58'		 (Report) Halliday  47'
Melaugh  85'
Longford Town1 – 0Glentoran
Paisley  88'
Paisley  89'		 (Report)
Flancare Park, Longford
Linfield1 – 0Longford Town
Thompson  26'
McCann  82'		 (Report)
Glentoran2 – 4Linfield
Lockhart  62'
Holmes  72'		 (Report) McAreavey  5'
Murphy  28'
Ferguson  43'
Mouncey  54'
Referee: Ian Stokes

Group 2
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1 Shelbourne (A) 4 2 1 1 5 4 +1 7 Advanced to final
2 Portadown 4 1 2 1 5 5 0 5
3 Cork City 4 1 1 2 2 3 −1 4
Source:
(A) Advance to a further round.
Shelbourne3 – 3Portadown
Baker  40',  67'
Byrne  44'		 (Report) Hamilton  49',  59'
Boyle  83'
Cork City1 – 0Shelbourne
Behan  59'
Gamble  85'		 (Report) Crawley  90'
Attendance: 4,000
Referee: David Malcolm
Portadown1 – 1Cork City
Kelly  77' (Report) Doyle  64'
Portadown0 – 1Shelbourne
Feeney  53' (Report) Byrne  4'
Shelbourne1 – 0Cork City
Harris  52' (Report)
Referee: Mark Courtney
Cork City0 – 1Portadown
McNulty (Report) Hamilton  30'
Hamilton
Referee: John Feighery

Final
Shelbourne0 – 2Linfield
Byrne  90+'
Moore  90+'		 (Report) Ferguson  26'
Thompson  37'
Referee: Mark Courtney
 Winner of 2005 Setanta Sports Cup 
Linfield
1st title

Goalscorers
3 goals
  • Gary Hamilton (Portadown)
2 goals
1 goal
1 own goal
  • Philip Simpson (Glentoran)
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gollark: The creep thing applies to breedings too, but since there's a gap between corporealizing and breeding it's increased a bit.
gollark: Possibly 5, because of time creep or whatever.
gollark: They are definitely on here.
gollark: Instead of doing that, I guess, possibly just ask for different/more stuff.

References
  1. http://www.rsssf.com/tablesa/alliercuphist.html
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