1995–96 NSL Cup

1995–96 NSL Cup

National Soccer League Cup
Tournament details
Country	Australia
Dates	3–27 January 1996
Teams	12
Defending champions	Melbourne Knights
Final positions
Champions	South Melbourne (2nd title)
Runner-up	Newcastle Breakers
Tournament statistics
Matches played	17
Goals scored	49 (2.88 per match)
Attendance	39,416 (2,319 per match)
Top goal scorer(s)	Vaughan Coveny (5 goals)
← 1994–95 1996–97 →

The 1995–96 NSL Cup was the 20th edition of the NSL Cup, which was the main national association football knockout cup competition in Australia. The NSL Cup was sponsored by Johnnie Walker and known as the Johnnie Walker Cup for sponsorship purposes.^[1]

Melbourne Knights were the defending champions, having defeated Heidelberg United to win their first title in the previous season's final, but they were eliminated in the first round by eventual winners South Melbourne.^[2]

South Melbourne defeated Newcastle Breakers 3–1 in the final to win their second NSL Cup title.

Teams

The NSL Cup was a knockout competition with 12 teams taking part all trying to reach the Final in January 1996.^[3] The competition consisted of the 12 teams from the National Soccer League.

Round	Main date	Number of fixtures	Clubs remaining
First round	Saturday 20 January 1996	12	12 → 6
Quarter-finals	Tuesday 23 January 1996	2	6 → 4
Semi-finals	Thursday 25 January 1996	2	4 → 2
Final	Saturday 27 January 1996	1	2 → 1

Bracket

	First round						Quarter-finals						Semi-finals						Final
	Adelaide City	1	2	3
	Morwell Falcons	0	0	0
													Adelaide City			1
													Newcastle Breakers			3
	Newcastle Breakers	1	1	2
	Brisbane Strikers	1	0	1
							Newcastle Breakers			3
							Sydney Olympic			1
	Sydney Olympic	2	3	5
	Wollongong City	3	0	3
																			Newcastle Breakers			1
																			South Melbourne			3
	South Melbourne	4	0	4
	Melbourne Knights	2	1	3
							South Melbourne			3
							Marconi Fairfield			2
	Marconi Fairfield	1	2	3
	Sydney United	1	0	1
													South Melbourne			3
													Canberra Cosmos			1
	West Adelaide	1	0	1
	Canberra Cosmos	1	1	2

First round

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Adelaide City	3–0	Morwell Falcons	1–0	2–0
Newcastle Breakers	2–1	Brisbane Strikers	1–0	1–1
Sydney Olympic	5–3	Wollongong City	2–3	3–0
South Melbourne	4–3	Melbourne Knights	4–2	0–1
Marconi Fairfield	3–1	Sydney United	1–1	2–0
West Adelaide	1–2	Canberra Cosmos	1–1	0–1

Canberra Cosmos won 2–1 on aggregate

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Adelaide City won 3–0 on aggregate

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Newcastle Breakers won 2–1 on aggregate

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South Melbourne won 4–3 on aggregate

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Sydney Olympic won 5–3 on aggregate

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Marconi Fairfield won 3–1 on aggregate

Quarter-finals

Adelaide City and Canberra Cosmos had a bye for the Quarter-finals.

Semi-finals

Final

References