The Irn-Bru Cup 2017/18

The Scottish Professional Football League Challenge Cup is commonly known as the Scottish League Challenge Cup or Scottish Challenge Cup.

The competition was first held during the 1990–91 season as the B&Q Centenary Cup to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the formation of the SFL. It was intended to be a one-off competition but was continued due to its popularity.

Originally comprising teams from the SPFL, and not including the top tier of Scottish football, it was expanded for the 2016/17 season to add the Under-20 teams of the Premiership clubs, and teams from the Highland and Lowland Leagues.

At the same time, invitations were issued to the Welsh and Northern Irish leagues to participate, their league champions and runners up being specified.

And the following season, the League of Ireland was invited to send its top two teams not qualified for European competition.

The first winner of the tournament was Dundee, who defeated Ayr United. Falkirk are the most successful team in the tournament, with four wins, most recently in 2012. The most recent winner was Dundee United, who defeated St Mirren in the 2017 final.

The draw for the first round of the 2017/18 competition was made on 27 June at the Summerlee Industrial Museum in Coatbridge, Lanarks.

First round (15 Aug)

North Section:
Aberdeen Colts 1-0 St Johnstone Colts
[F Ross 42]
Dundee Colts 2-4 Alloa Athletic (16 Aug)
[M Henvey 40, 79; C Malcolm 13, 91+, C Crane 21, I Flannigan 33]
Stirling Albion 1-3 Montrose
[D Smith 90; A Steeves 45, C Ballantyne 56, 85]
Ross County Colts 2-1 Forfar Athletic
[B McKay 25, R Maciver 27; M Millar 89]
Dundee United 2-0 Cowdenbeath
[P Nkoyi 51, 67]
Formartine United 2-3 Hearts Colts aet
[A McPhee 17, M Berton 35 (S Ferries s/o 103); D Zanatta 50, 92+, H Paton 119 (K Smith s/o 122+)]
East Fife 0-2 Peterhead
[M Lawrence 2, S Adams 64]
Stenhousemuir 0-2 Cove Rangers
[R Dunlop 19 og, M Megginson 36p]
Raith Rovers 3-0 Brora Rangers
[R Callachan 16, L Vaughan 65, Y Osei-Opoku 84]
Dunfermline Athletic 2-0 Arbroath
[A Ryan 24, 40 (C Duthie s/o 92+); (R Little s/o 31)]
Hibernian Colts 1-2 Elgin City
[F Murray 48; C McLeish 19, S Bronsky 89]
Buckie Thistle 2-1 Brechin City
[K Fraser 56, 82; P McLean 14]

South Section:
Dumbarton 2-1 Rangers Colts (16 Aug)
[C Gallagher 2p, M Stewart 49; R Hardie 72]
Clyde 2-3 Stranraer aet
[M McNiff 2, S Osadolor 48; S Agnew 66p, J Stewart 70 og, E Wallace 103]
Hamilton Academical Colts 1-0 Edinburgh City
[R Tierney 4p]
Albion Rovers 0-0 Spartans aet, Albion win 5-4 pens*
Motherwell Colts 2-1 Queens Park (16 Aug)
[E Plummer 62, A Livingstone 69; A Cummins 29]
St Mirren 2-1 East Kilbride
[R Stewart 87, L Morgan 92+; D McLaren 81]
Partick Thistle Colts 6-1 Stirling University
[N McLaughlin 15, 57, 79, M Lamont 52, K Nisbet 60, A Fitzpatrick 67; B Lyons 75]
Queen of the South 4-0 Airdrieonians
[D Lyle 14, J Kerr 25, D Brownlie 4, S Rooney 88]
Kilmarnock Colts 0-2 Berwick Rangers
[S Thomson 19, M McKenna 39]
Annan Athletic 3-1 Celtic Colts
[A Smith 17, 23p, 84; R Hendry 30 (W Duffy s/o 9)]
Morton 0-2 Livingston
[N Todorov 25, D Mullen 70]
East Stirlingshire 1-5 Ayr United (16 Aug)
[D Ure 40; L Murphy 26, B Gilmour 38, C Moore 54, A Forrest 58, L McCowan 88]

Second round (02 Sep)
Sligo Rovers 1-2 Falkirk
[Seamus Sharkey 18; Nathan Austin 9, James Craigen 28]
Elgin City 2-0 Bray Wanderers
[Chris Dodd 46, Jordan Allan 92+]
Crusaders 3-2 Motherwell Colts
[Philip Lowry 28, Billy Joe Burns 84, 92+; David Turnbull 51, George Newell 67]
Spartans* 1-2 Linfield
[Blair Atkinson 74; Louis Rooney 39, Stephen Lowry 49]
The New Saints 1-1 Livingston aet, TNS win 6-5 pens (03 Sep)
[A Edwards 20; D Mackin 64]
Dumbarton 2-1 Connahs Quay Nomads aet
[David Wilson 81, Dimitris Froxylias 120; Callum Morris 26 pen (George Horan s/o 118)]
Peterhead 2-0 Annan Athletic
[Russell McLean 59, Rory McAllister 78]
Dundee United 3-1 Alloa Athletic
[Patrick Nkoyi 72, Paul McMullan 91+, William Flood 93+; Kevin Cawley 78]
Berwick Rangers 0-5 Queen of the South
[Shaun Rooney 53, Stephen Dobbie 58, 63, Derek Lyle 60, Christopher Kane 87]
St Mirren 1-3 Heart of Midlothian Colts
[Gavin Reilly 8, 48, John Sutton 83; Rory Currie 81]
Hamilton Academical Colts 1-3 Cove Rangers
[Jack Breen 54; Jamie Masson 14, Mitchel Megginson 27, 30]
Aberdeen Colts 2-4 Inverness Caledonian Thistle
[Sebastian Ross 51, Bruce Anderson 89 (Francis Ross s/o 87); Riccardo Calder 3, Liam Polworth 25, David Raven 40, Carl Tremarco 82 (Charlie Trafford s/o 87)]
Ayr United 1-1 Montrose aet, Montrose win 6-5 pens (29 Aug)
[Craig Moore 28; Iain Campbell 2]
Stranraer 2-0 Partick Thistle Colts (01 Sep)
[Ryan Wallace 33, Daniel Stoney 91+]
Buckie Thistle 0-3 Dunfermline Athletic
[Nicholas Clark 7, 35, Andrew Ryan 39]
Raith Rovers 4-0 Ross County Colts
[Lewis Vaughan 7, 21, Robert Barr 10, Liam Buchanan 27]

* Albion Rovers fielded an ineligible player against Spartans, match awarded to Spartans 24 Aug.

Third round (07 Oct, 3pm exc as noted)
The New Saints 4-0 Elgin City 4.30pm
[G Draper 17, 61, A Edwards 39, J Mullan 44]
St Mirren 1-3 Raith Rovers
[G Reilly 63; L Vaughan 64, G Spence 73, R Barr 81]
Montrose 1-3 Queen of the South aet
[T Masson 23; S Dobbie 87, 120, L Dykes 113]
Falkirk 2-0 Dunfermline Athletic
[C Balatoni 19, M Hippolyte 59; (D Shiels s/o 96)]
Dundee United 1-0 Linfield 5pm
[L Chalmers 95]
Cove Rangers 0-3 Crusaders
[(S Ross s/o 55); M Carvill 52+, J Glackin 60, D Caddell 93]
Inverness Caledonian Thistle 3-0 Peterhead
[L Polworth 2, R Calder 51, D Mackay 92]
Dumbarton 2-1 Stranraer (06 Oct)
[C Barr 12, M Stewart 65; C Okoh 93]

Quarter-Finals (11 Nov)
Dundee United 1-2 Crusaders
[Fraser Fyvie 55; D Cushley 67, G Whyte 91+]
The New Saints 0-0 Queen of the South aet, Saints win 4-3 pens (12 Nov)
Inverness Caledonian Thistle 1-0 Falkirk
[Connor Bell 57]
Dumbarton 2-0 Raith Rovers
[Chris McLaughlin 20, Ally Roy 49; (G Spence s/o 58)]

Semi-Finals
Inverness CT 3-2 Crusaders FC (18 Feb)
[George Oakley 1, Joe Chalmers 13, Jake Mulraney 44 (Brad McKay s/o 63; Iain Vigurs m/p 96+); Paul Heatley 57, 79 (Declan Caddell s/o 96+)]
The New Saints 1-2 Dumbarton (17 Feb)
[Dean Ebbe 52; Daniel Handling 74, Dimitris Froxylias 84]

Final
24 Mar 2018, McDiarmid Park, Perth
Dumbarton 0-1 Inverness CT
[Carl Tremarco 93; (Scott Gallacher s/pen (Iain Vigurs)]