The Blues almost raced into a third minute lead when a Glenn Ferguson header was blocked on the line by Darren Armour while another early effort, from Aidan O'Kane, tested Philip Matthews with a left-foot effort from the edge of the area.

At the other end Curtis Allen fired just over from the left side of the area but within three minutes Linfield moved in front when Robert Garrett fired a left-footed drive from 20 yards beyond Matthews into the top left corner.

Allen came close to levelling for the Whites again just short of the hour while team-mate Andy Kilmartin produced an acrobatic stop from Alan Mannus moments later.

But Linfield's nerves were settled with a quarter-of-an-hour remaining when Glenn Ferguson got his head to a Jamie Mulgrew cross from the right to double their lead.