Champions Linfield comfortable winners at Dungannon

Champions Linfield defeated Dungannon Swifts 3-0 at Stangmore Park in their first game since securing the Gibson Cup.

Callumn Morrison's effort gave the away side the lead on nine minutes before Joel Cooper's penalty doubled their advantage just before the break.

Dungannon thought they had cut the deficit when Tomas Galvin's effort bounced down off the crossbar but neither referee nor linesman thought the ball had gone over the line and the Blues netted their third with just two minutes to go when Chris McKee converted fellow substitute Kieran Offord's cross.

The result means that David Healy's side further extend their lead at the top of the table to 22 points.

Clinical Linfield take advantage of their chances

Dungannon were denied an early lead by the woodwork when Galvin's low effort from Brandon Bermingham's cross pinged off the right-hand post.

There was an early breakthrough though with David Healy's side opening the scoring through their first chance of the game after Cooper rounded stopper Alex Henderson, who had come off his line to try and clear the ball, and played the ball back for Morrison to fire home.

Linfield would then have an effort of their own denied by the woodwork with Cooper's thunderous effort from the edge of the box striking the inside of the post.

Shortly after, Alex Henderson was called into action to deny Linfield from extending their lead with the young stopper making a diving save to stop Matthew Fitzpatrick's header from nestling into the bottom corner.

Dungannon nearly levelled the game almost instantly with Thomas Maguire's effort denied by David Walsh.

The away side were awarded a penalty in the 44th minute after Dylan King brought down Fitzpatrick in the box with Cooper making no mistake with the resulting spot-kick, firing low past the outstretched Henderson.

Controversy in second half with Galvin effort ruled out

In the second half, Galvin's strike from range looked like it was going to halve Linfield's advantage but his curling strike pinged off the crossbar, onto the line and was then cleared by Ethan McGee despite claims from the hosts that a goal should have been given.

Dylan King's slack pass then fell perfectly for substitute Kieran Offord, but Morrison couldn't steer home his resulting pass.

In the final ten minutes, midfielder Josh Archer made a crucial clearance off the line to stop Gael Bigrimana from connecting with Maguire's pass and getting a shot away into an empty net.

The action wasn't done there though with Linfield making it 3-0 on 88 minutes when Offord played the ball across to McKee to bundle home from close range, to the frustration of Dungannon who believed they should have had a penalty seconds before.

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