Although this will be a first League Cup final appearance for Glentoran since 2010 there can be no doubting the impact the east Belfast club have had on the competition down through the years.

Even the most cursory of glances at the list of previous finals won't fail to impress upon the viewer the role Glentoran played in establishing the fledgling competition, nor their success rate that brought 12 appearances in the decider, winning seven of them.

On top of that, the Glens appeared in three successive finals three times in a row … although they also suffered the ignominy of being the first side to lose three times on the trot.

Additionally, the Oval hosted the first three finals but it wasn't until the third of those, the 1988/89 edition, that saw the Glens make their first appearance - and what an historic occasion that turned out to be!

Coming up against old foes Linfield, Glentoran fell behind after 19 minutes when Paul Mooney fired into the roof of the net following a goalmouth scramble.

But, with a quarter-of-an-hour remaining, back came the Glens through Gary McCartney's equaliser from Jim Cleary's corner.

However, with just four minutes left on the clock, keeper Alan Paterson collected the ball inside his own box and launched a clearance that travelled the entire length of the pitch before taking one bounce and evading the reach of his despairing opposite number, George Dunlop, to end up in the back of the net marking the first time in British football history that a goalkeeper had scored in a senior final!

Glentoran were back in the final in 1990/91 when a McCartney second half double was enough to see off Ards at Windsor Park, but there then followed a six year gap before they were back in the decider again.

That sparked a run of three successive finals and, unfortunately, three successive defeats. A Padraig Dully goal saw Crusaders win in 1996/97 while Jeff Spiers scored the only goal the following season as Linfield came out on top.

Surely the 1998/99 decider wouldn't also see the Glens end up on the losing side once more? Alas, history shows us that they did.

Linfield were again the opponents, and against it was an evenly contested affair. Scoreless after 90 minutes, the Blues edged in front on 94 minutes through Glenn Ferguson but Scott Young levelled for the Glens just three minutes after that.

However 'Spike' struck again early in the second period of the extra-time to condemn Glentoran to a record breaking third straight defeat.

After a year out, a quarter-final defeat to Limavady United saw to that, Glentoran returned to the final in 2000/01 and this time they managed to put the heartache of those previous defeats behind them when Young converted from the spot midway through the second half to edge out Glenavon at Windsor Park.

Although a narrow victory on paper, Roy Coyle's side could also point to Darren Lockhart hitting the woodwork twice in three minutes early in the second half!

As it turned out, Glentoran only held onto the trophy for seven short months.

A rejigging of the calendar saw the 2001/02 edition of the competition brought forward to the beginning of the season, but once again Glentoran made the final although they came up against a Linfield side that was seeking a fourth success in five seasons and achieved it thanks to goals from Chris Morgan, Tony Gorman and Russell Kelly.

Revenge was exacted just over a year later when the sides met in the final for a remarkable fourth time in six seasons but, for the first time in that run, Glentoran came out on top.

Michael Halliday handed the Glens the lead at the break when, midway through the first half, he combined with Andy Smyth to knock the ball past Gregg Shannon.

Then, on 73 minutes, man-of-the-match Gary Smyth made sure when he found himself unmarked to prod home Glentoran's second.

Somewhat unbelievably, the sides came up against each other in the final yet again in 2004/05, and again Glentoran edged the win.

Lockhart got Coyle's charges off to the best possible start with a headed finish to Mark Glendinning's cross as early as the fourth minute, a lead they held for almost the entire 90 minutes before Mark Picking equalised for Linfield.

The winner arrived late in the first period of extra-time. An initial Glendinning effort was knocked out by Alan Mannus but only as far as Morgan - who had made the switch across the city in the summer - to turn the rebound into the net.

Fast forward twelve months, and another tussle in the final with Linfield. Unfortunately for Glentoran, this one wasn't really a contest as Glenn Ferguson bagged a hat-trick as the Blues wrestled back control of the trophy.

A year later Glentoran knocked Linfield out on penalties in the semi-final to progress to meet Cliftonville in the 2006/07 final, emerging victorious after Gary Hamilton rounded the keeper to score from an acute angle just after the half-hour mark.

One further final appearance saw the Glens take on Coleraine in the 2009/10 showdown.

The game got off to a blistering start with Ciaran Martyn firing Glentoran in front after just six minutes with a lob over Davy O'Hare only for Darren Boyce to level for the Bannsiders within sixty seconds.

Coleraine seized the advantage on 33 minutes via Rory Patterson's cool finish but, on the stroke of half-time, Colin Nixon nodded home the equaliser.

With no further goals in the second half, nor for the entirety of extra-time, it took a penalty shoot-out to settle it … and in this Glentoran were clinical.

Hamilton scored the first penalty, with Kyle Neill and Daryl Fordyce also converting as Coleraine had no answer with Aaron Canning and Boyce missing, leaving the stage set for Matthew Burrows to step up to bring the trophy back to the Oval once more.

That seventh success has, however, been Glentoran's last since then. They did get to the semi-finals the following season but that really was as good as it got until last year when the last four was reached again.

Could this season be the one that rekindles Glentoran's love affair with the competition?