BLUES SINK NEWRY WITH SECOND HALF TREBLE
Three quick fire second half goals helped Linfield defeat Newry City at The Showgrounds.
Although scoreless at the break, both sides had their chances in the first half with City coming closest when Georgie Poynton clipped the crossbar from a corner while Chris McKee saw a corner tipped over the top by Steven Maguire.
The deadlock was broken on 53 minutes, however, when Matthew Fitzpatrick connected with Joel Cooper's free-kick to initially head against an upright before sweeping home the rebound.
Cooper then found the net himself just a couple of minutes after that when Fitzpatrick paid the favour with a cross from the touchline for Cooper to tuck into the bottom corner.
Then, just after the hour, Kirk Millar added a third when his cross from the right was misjudged by Maguire under pressure from Fitzpatrick before squeezing into the net.
Linfield might have added another late in the game when McKee sent a low curling effort against the post with Fitzpatrick unable to make the rebound count.
Newry City: Maguire, King, N. Healy, McGivern, Carroll, Hughes, Salley, Bagnall, Martin, Forde, Poynton subs Murphy, O’Connor, Lockhart, B. Healy, Newell, Mooney, McGovern
Linfield: Johns, East, Newberry, Shields, Millar, Cooper, Hall, Clarke, McKee, Mulgrew, Fitzpatrick subs Walsh, McClean, McBrien, Haygarth, McCullough, Annett, Archer
Substitution 
Substitution 
