BBC Sport NI confirmed today that it will be streaming the Irish Cup first round tie between Glenavon and Crusaders in early January.
The game at Mourneview Park in Lurgan is the only all-Premiership encounter in the first round of this season’s Samuel Gelston’s Whiskey Irish Cup and it is scheduled to be played on Friday 7 January, with a 7.45pm start.
The Glenavon-Crues clash will kick off a weekend of action in the Samuel Gelston’s-sponsored competition and it will be streamed live on BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport NI website.
Crusaders, who were beaten semi-finalists last season, will be hoping to repeat their success in the competition from 2019, while the Lurgan Blues have to go back to 2016 to when they last lifted the cup.
However, Glenavon will not be the only Lurgan-based side in round one of the Samuel Gelston’s Whiskey Irish Cup this season.
Mid-Ulster Intermediate A side Oxford Sunnyside are also in the last 32 and they are set to face cup holders Linfield at the National Football Stadium at Windsor Park on Saturday 8 January, the day when all the other first round matches will be staged.
And the other Mid-Ulster Intermediate A side in the draw, Armagh-based Windmill Stars, have also landed a plum tie against a NIFL Danske Bank Premiership side. They are away to Coleraine.
Those two games are among several David v Goliath clashes in round one. Eight intermediate level teams navigated their way through four preliminary rounds to reach the first round where they have been joined by 24 Premiership and Championship teams.