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Linfield had to dig deep to record victory over Carrick Rangers under the lights of the Loughshore Lakeview Arena this evening, preserving the Blues’ five-point lead at the top of the Sports Direct Premiership.

Having lost on their only trip to Carrickfergus last season – and having been held to a 3-3 draw by Stuart King’s men earlier this season – David Healy and Linfield knew a tough task lay ahead. They were also without striker Chris McKee, who missed out against his local team due to his involvement with the Northern Ireland U21 team, resulting in Darragh McBrien coming into the side in the Blues’ only change.

Although the game took a while to settle, with the ball going back to front at a quick tempo, the Blues went close twice in an otherwise uneventful opening 20 minutes. Kirk Millar was involved both times, firstly crossing from the right to the front post from Matthew Fitzpatrick had a header well saved, and secondly, hitting a free-kick from wide left which curled and flashed just over the top right hand corner of the net, with Carrick ‘keeper Glendinning looking anxious as the ball travelled over his head.

Then, Carrick Rangers had a strong 15-minute spell where they finished the half well on top. Ben Hall did well to prevent Danny Purkis’ cross making its way through to Curtis Allen who was in the middle waiting to pull the trigger. Purkis also had a great chance when a Carrick corner was headed across the box where he turned and struck a shot over the bar at close range.

Carrick’s Kurtis Forsythe fired over after cutting in from the right, and Joe Crowe had a free-kick from a good position blocked, as well as his rebound, both from a good position. There was another scare for the Blues just before the break, as Curtis Allen met a corner delivery at the near post and his header flashed just wide of the far post, with MacKinnon and Purkis both very close to getting on the end of it. Carrick lived to regret not scoring during that spell when they were on top.

Half Time: Carrick Rangers 0 – 0 Linfield

The Blues improved their performance levels early in the second half as they played with more purpose and pressed Carrick more aggressively, though Carrick Rangers did threaten a few minutes after the restart and it took an excellent save from Chris Johns to keep the scores level as he pushed a thunderous piledriver from Ben Tilney around the corner when it was destined for the top corner.

As Linfield upped the ante in search of an opener, a good move saw Matthew Fitzpatrick stretch the Carrick defence to receive the ball in the channel before teeing up Chris Shields for a 20-yard save which was well beaten away by the diving Glendinning.

The breakthrough then arrived on 61 minutes when Kirk Millar got the ball out wide of the right side and he delivered a wonderful cross into the middle. It looked like Darragh McBrien was favourite to get there, but he went down inside the box and perhaps Carrick Rangers defender Kurtis Forsythe didn’t anticipate this as he stuck an instinctive leg out which diverted the ball past his own goalkeeper.

The Blues then doubled their lead ten minutes later. It came from Matthew Clarke’s long throw-in into the box and Joel Cooper did well to block a Carrick player’s attempted clearance – this saw the ball roll across the box where Kyle McClean turned and rifled a shot in from nine yards for his fourth goal of the season.

Carrick Rangers boss Stuart King – who reached 100 matches in charge of the Amber Army this week – made two substitutions with attacking intent to try and find a way back into the match. One of the substitutes who came on was forward Emmet McGuckin and he made an impact within four minutes as he got a good run and leap to meet Ben Tilney’s diagonal cross into the box where the forward guided an excellent header into the net.

At the beginning of six minutes of additional time, Chris Johns had to be alert to beat over a fierce free-kick from 35 yards by Kyle Cherry, and Linfield defended the resultant corner well. The Blues held on well for a hard-earned three points to nicely set up next week’s top two clash against Cliftonville at Solitude.

Full Time: Carrick Rangers 1 - 2 Linfield

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