It took the Blues until the 36th minute to break the deadlock, though, when Jim Ervin stroked home a penalty into the bottom left corner of Alan Blayney's goal.

Winkie Murphy almost doubled their advantage two minutes into the second half when he got a touch to a Damien Curran corner only for the ball to clip the outside of the post.

Linfield's second came four minutes after the hour courtesy of a Paul Munster drive from just inside the area after he beat the offside trap to get onto the end of a long ball out of defence.

And Kevin McHugh completed the scoring five minutes from time following a Gavin McDonnell defensive error to take the ball past Blayney and into the unguarded net.

Moments earlier Paul McAreavey fired just over the bar from an Ervin right wing cross while, a minute from the end of normal time, McHugh almost added a fourth only to somehow miss an open goal after Mark McAllister had cut the ball back from the touchline.