The White Ribbon NI Charity Shield makes a return after a five year absence on Saturday when Danske Bank Premiership champions Linfield host Samuel Gelston's Whiskey Irish Cup winners Crusaders at Windsor Park, kick-off 3pm.

First contested almost 30 years ago to the day, the Shield has been played intermittently over the seasons that followed and, indeed, this will be only the 11th edition of what is seen as the curtain raiser to the new campaign.

The Shield was shared for the first two years of its existence.

The inaugural game saw Glentoran and Glenavon play out a 1-1 draw at Windsor Park on August 8th 1992. Andy Mathieson opened the scoring for the Belfast Glens on 78 minutes before Nigel Quigley responded with just sixty seconds remaining.

Then, twelve months later, the game between Linfield and Bangor also ended in stalemate. Stephen Brown had given the Seasiders the advantage midway through the first half but Mark Anderson levelled for the Blues with just five minutes remaining.

However Linfield went one better the following year when the sides met again. Scoreless at the break, it took until the 70th minute for Stephen Beatty to open the scoring before Pat Fenlon - now Linfield's general manager - made sure with a couple of minutes left on the clock.

A break of four years followed before the Shield returned for a further three seasons.

Glentoran played in all three games and, unfortunately for the east Belfast outfit, also lost all three!

They went down 1-0 to Cliftonville in 1998, then 2-1 to Portadown a year later in a game that saw three players sent-off before suffering a two-goal reversal to Linfield in a game controversially shortened to 40 minutes each way to allow for an exhibition game between Liverpool and Benfica on the Windsor pitch that same afternoon.

That signalled the disappearance of the Shield from the calendar for over a decade before Cliftonville and Ballymena played in the 2014 revival in what has, so far, been the only penalty shoot-out decider when the Reds emerged 4-2 victors after the game itself ended scoreless.

Glentoran finally got their hands on the trophy outright a year after that when a 69th minute Jordan Stewart strike saw them edge out Crusaders.

The Crues finished on the losing side again in 2016, this time going down by a single goal to Glenavon at Mourneview Park when Jordan Jenkins, then only 16, fired home the winner with 12 minutes left for the ten-men Lurgan Blues who had Mark Patton sent-off in the first half.

The Shield was last contested the following year when Linfield defeated Coleraine 3-1 at The Oval, incidentally the highest scoring game in Shield history.

The sides traded goals in the first half through Billy Joe Burns and Josh Carson, before Andrew Mitchell and Paul Smyth struck in quick succession with less than a quarter-of-an-hour remaining to hand the Blues a record fourth victory.

Tickets for Saturday's game are available by clicking here.