2015–16 Northern Ireland Football League Cup
| JBE League Cup | |||
| Country |
 Northern Ireland
|
||
|---|---|---|---|
| Teams | 40 | ||
| Champions | Cliftonville (5th win) | ||
| Runners-up | Ards | ||
| Matches played | 39 | ||
| Goals scored | 142 (3.64 per match) | ||
|
|||
The 2015–16 Northern Ireland Football League Cup (known as the JBE League Cup for sponsorship purposes) was the 30th edition of Northern Ireland's football knock-out cup competition for national league clubs, and the third edition of the competition as the Northern Ireland Football League Cup. This season's League Cup was sponsored by JBE Mechanical Electrical, and was contested by the 40 clubs in the NIFL Premiership, NIFL Championship 1 and NIFL Championship 2. The number of participants fell by one this season following Ballymoney United's relegation from the 2014–15 NIFL Championship 2 to regional football. The competition began on 18 August 2015 with the first round, and concluded on 13 February 2016 with the final at Solitude.
For the third consecutive season Cliftonville were the defending champions, following their 3–2 win over Ballymena United in the 2015 final. This secured the trophy for the third consecutive season and the fourth time overall. This season they once again pulled off a successful defence of the Cup, defeating second-tier side Ards 3–0 in the final. In doing so, they became the first club ever to appear in, and win four consecutive League Cup finals.Ards reached the final for the first time in 21 years, and the third time overall. This marked only the second occasion in the competition's history that a club from outside the top-flight had reached the final, the first being Portadown (then of the second–tier) in the 2009 final. Ards' previous final appearance had also been against Cliftonville, when they won the Cup 2–0 on penalties after a 0–0 draw in 1994–95.
...
Wikipedia