# 2016–17 Scottish Challenge Cup

The 2016–17 Scottish Challenge Cup, known as the IRN-BRU Cup due to sponsorship reasons, was the 26th season of the competition. The tournament took on a different format from previous seasons with a total of 54 teams participating. It was the first season with two clubs from both Northern Ireland and Wales competing alongside the 30 members of the 2016–17 Scottish Championship, 2016–17 Scottish League One and 2016–17 Scottish League Two, four teams from the 2016–17 Highland Football League and four from the 2016–17 Lowland Football League as well as the Under-20 teams of the teams competing in the 2016–17 Scottish Premiership.
The defending champions, Rangers, who defeated Peterhead in the 2016 final, did not compete in the competition due to their promotion to the Scottish Premiership. Irn Bru replaced Petrofac as the main sponsor of the competition in June 2016.

## Format

| Round | Date | Fixtures | Clubs | New Entries |
| First round | 2–3 August 2016 | 14 | 54 → 40 | 12 Under-20 teams from 2016–17 Scottish Premiership 8 teams placed 3rd–10th from 2015–16 Scottish League Two 4 teams from 2015–16 Lowland Football League 4 teams from 2015–16 Highland Football League |
| Second round | 16–17 August 2016 | 12 | 40 → 28 | 2 teams placed 1st and 2nd from 2015–16 Scottish League Two 8 teams placed 3rd–10th from 2015–16 Scottish League One |
| Third round | 3–4 September 2016 | 12 | 28 → 16 | 2 teams placed 1st and 2nd from 2015–16 Scottish League One 9 teams from 2015–16 Scottish Championship plus Dundee United |
| Fourth round | 8–9 October 2016 | 8 | 16 → 8 | 2 teams from 2015–16 NIFL Premiership 2 teams from 2015–16 Welsh Premier League Note: Fourth round draw was regionalised to keep Northern Irish and Welsh teams apart. |
| Quarter-finals | 12–13 November 2016 | 4 | 8 → 4 | |
| Semi-finals | 18–19 February 2017 | 2 | 4 → 2 | |
| Final | 25 or 26 March 2017 | 1 | 2 → 1 | |

## First round

The draw for the first round was made on 23 June at Hampden Park. The 28 teams entering at this stage were separated into 4 regional pools. This was to ensure that U20s teams were not drawn against each other and that teams from the Highland and Lowland Leagues were not drawn against each other.

### North Section
#### Draw and seeding

Teams from Pool A will be drawn against teams from Pool B. Teams in Bold qualified for the Second round.
| Pool A | Pool B |
| Aberdeen U20s Dundee U20s Heart of Midlothian U20s Inverness Caledonian Thistle U20s Ross County U20s St Johnstone U20s East Stirlingshire | Cove Rangers Formartine United Brora Rangers Turriff United Stirling Albion Montrose Arbroath |

#### Matches
### South Section
#### Draw and seeding

Teams from Pool C will be drawn against teams from Pool D. Teams in Bold qualified for the Second round.
| Pool C | Pool D |
| Celtic U20s Hamilton Academical U20s Kilmarnock U20s Motherwell U20s Partick Thistle U20s Rangers U20s Berwick Rangers | Edinburgh City Spartans Stirling University Cumbernauld Colts Clyde Queen's Park Annan Athletic |

#### Matches
## Second round

The draw for the second round was made at 12:30pm on Thursday, 4 August at Hampden Park and streamed live on Periscope by Irn-Bru's football Twitter account. The 14 teams advancing from the first round were joined by the top two teams from the 2015–16 Scottish League Two and the eight teams placed third to 10th from the 2015–16 Scottish League One.
The second round ties will take place on Tuesday 16 or Wednesday 17 August 2016.

### North Section
#### Draw and seeding

Teams from Pot A will be drawn against teams from Pot B. Teams in Bold advanced to the third round.
| Pot A | Pot B |
| 01. Peterhead 02. Brechin City 03. Forfar Athletic 04. East Fife 05. Elgin City 06. Montrose | 07. Aberdeen U20s 08. Heart of Midlothian U20s 09. Cove Rangers 10. Brora Rangers 11. Turriff United 12. Arbroath |

#### Matches
### South Section
#### Draw and seeding

Teams from Pot C will be drawn against teams from Pot D. Teams in Italics were not known at the time of the draw. Teams in Bold advanced to the third round.
| Pot C | Pot D |
| 13. Stranraer 14. Airdrieonians 15. Albion Rovers 16. Stenhousemuir 17. Cowdenbeath 18. Queen's Park | 19. Celtic U20s 20. Hamilton Academical U20s 21. Motherwell U20s 22. Partick Thistle U20s 23. Rangers U20s 24. Spartans |

#### Matches
## Third round

The draw for the third round was made on Thursday 18 August at 1pm at The Kelpies and was streamed live on Periscope by Irn-Bru's football Twitter account. The 12 teams advancing from the second round will be joined by the ten teams from the 2016–17 Scottish Championship and the bottom two teams from the 2015–16 Scottish Championship.
The third round ties took place on Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 September 2016.

### North Section
#### Draw and seeding

Teams from Pot A will be drawn against teams from Pot B. Teams in Bold advanced to the fourth round.
| Pot A | Pot B |
| 01. Dundee United 02. Falkirk 03. Hibernian 04. Raith Rovers 05. Alloa Athletic 06. Dunfermline Athletic | 07. Peterhead 08. Brechin City 09. Forfar Athletic 10. East Fife 11. Elgin City 12. Turriff United |

#### Matches
### South Section
#### Draw and seeding

Teams from Pot C will be drawn against teams from Pot D. Teams in Bold advanced to the fourth round.
| Pot C | Pot D |
| 13. Greenock Morton 14. St Mirren 15. Queen of the South 16. Dumbarton 17. Livingston 18. Ayr United | 19. Stranraer 20. Airdrieonians 21. Albion Rovers 22. Stenhousemuir 23. Queen's Park 24. Celtic U20s |

#### Matches
## Fourth round

The 12 teams advancing from the third round were to be joined by the four teams that finished first and second in the 2015–16 NIFL Premiership and the 2015–16 Welsh Premier League.

### Draw and seeding

The draw for the fourth round was made at the Oriam National Performance Centre, Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh on Tuesday, 6 September at 12pm. The draw was made by John Hartson and IRN-BRU super fan Michael Douglas. There was no seeding for the draw however, teams for Northern Ireland and Wales could not be drawn against each other. As a result, they were placed into two separate pots (A and B) before being drawn against the remaining Scottish teams (Pot C). The Welsh teams were drawn first followed by the Northern Irish teams with one of each playing at home and one away.
Teams in Bold advanced to the quarter-finals.
| Pot A Welsh Premier League | Pot B NIFL Premiership | Pot C SPFL |
| 01. The New Saints 02. Bala Town | 03. Crusaders 04. Linfield | 05. Dundee United 06. Falkirk 07. Hibernian 08. St Mirren 09. Queen of the South 10. Livingston 11. Alloa Athletic 12. Dunfermline Athletic 13. Ayr United 14. Stranraer 15. Forfar Athletic 16. Queen's Park |

### Replay
#### Notes

* ^ A- Livingston's 2–1 win against Crusaders on Friday, 7 October was ordered to be replayed after Livingston pleaded guilty to a breach of SPFL rules in the original fixture. The club was fined £4,000 after they played Alan Lithgow for the full 90 minutes. Lithgow was ineligible for the match as he was still under an SFA suspension at the time.

## Quarter-finals
### Draw

The draw for the quarter-finals was made at the Titan Crane on the River Clyde in Clydebank on Monday, 10 October at 2pm and was streamed live on Periscope by Irn-Bru's football Twitter account. The draw was made by former Dundee United and Scotland striker Kevin Gallacher and Rio 2016 silver medallist Dan Wallace. There was no seeding for the draw however, as with the previous round, teams from Northern Ireland and Wales, should they qualify, would not be drawn against each other. The ties took place on the weekend of 12 and 13 November.
Teams in Bold advanced to the semi-finals.
| Welsh Premier League | SPFL |
| 01. The New Saints | 02. Dundee United 03. St Mirren 04. Queen of the South 05. Livingston 06. Alloa Athletic 07. Dunfermline Athletic 08. Ayr United |

### Matches
## Semi-finals
### Draw

The draw for the semi-finals was made at the Toryglen Regional Football Centre in Glasgow on Monday, 14 November and streamed live on Periscope by Irn-Bru's football Twitter account. The draw was made by former Manchester City and Scotland striker Paul Dickov and current Scotland and Hibernian striker Abi Harrison. There was no seeding for the draw and the ties are due to take place on the weekend of 18 and 19 February 2017.
Teams in Bold advanced to the final.
| Championship | Welsh Premier League |
| Dundee United Queen of the South St. Mirren | The New Saints |

### Matches
## Statistics
### Top goalscorers

    As of matches played on 19 February 2017
| Rank | Player | Club | Goals |
| 1 | Stephen Dobbie | Queen of the South | 6 |
| 2 | Josh Peters | Forfar Athletic | 4 |
| 2 | Liam Buchanan | Livingston | 4 |
| 2 | Craig Malcolm | Stranraer | 4 |
| 2 | John Sutton | St Mirren | 4 |
| 6 | Scott Wright | Aberdeen U20s | 3 |
| 6 | Ross Dunlop | Albion Rovers | 3 |
| 6 | Greig Spence | Alloa Athletic | 3 |
| 6 | Tony Andreu | Dundee United | 3 |
| 6 | Kevin Nisbet | Partick Thistle U20s | 3 |
| 6 | Rory McAllister | Peterhead | 3 |
| 6 | Greg Draper | The New Saints | 3 |
| 6 | Stevie Mallan | St Mirren | 3 |

## Player of the Round

The Golden Ball Award is a 'Player of the Round' award given to the player who is adjudged to have had the best performance of that round out of all the players in teams left competing in that round of the competition. The winner is voted for by supporters from a chosen short-list of players on the official Irn-Bru Football twitter page.
| Round | Player | Club | Match |
| First Round | Josh Jeffries | Rangers U20s | 4–0 v Stirling University (H) |
| Second Round | Craig Malcolm | Stranraer | 7–1 v Spartans (H) |
| Third Round | Stephen Dobbie | Queen of the South | 7–1 v Stenhousemuir (H) |
| Fourth Round | Farid El Alagui | Dunfermline Athletic | 2–1 v Queen's Park (H) |
| Quarter-finals | John Sutton | St Mirren | 2–1 v Ayr United (H) |
| Semi-finals | Stevie Mallan | St Mirren | 4–1 v The New Saints (H) |

## Broadcasting rights

The domestic broadcasting rights for the competition are held jointly by BBC Alba, S4C (for matches involving Welsh teams) and subscription channel Premier Sports. Prior to the re-format in the 2016–17 season, BBC Alba had exclusive rights.
The following matches are to be broadcast live on UK television:
| Round | BBC Alba | S4C | Premier Sports |
| First Round | | N/A | Celtic U20s v Annan Athletic |
| Second Round | | N/A | Cowdenbeath v Celtic U20s |
| Third Round | Turriff United v Hibernian | N/A | Livingston v Celtic U20s |
| Fourth Round | Queen of the South v Linfield | Bala Town v Alloa Athletic | Crusaders v Livingston (original tie) |
| Quarter-Finals | Livingston v The New Saints | Livingston v The New Saints | Dunfermline Athletic v Dundee United St Mirren v Ayr United |
| Semi-Finals | Queen of the South v Dundee United St Mirren v The New Saints | St Mirren v The New Saints | |
| Final | Dundee United v St Mirren | | |