It was a successful night for Linfield, Cliftonville and Crusaders on a big evening of midweek Sports Direct Premiership action.

There were also draws at the BetMcLean Oval and Lakeview Park.

Linfield turned in a dominant first half performance to defeat Glenavon by three goals at Mourneview Park.

The visitors held a comfortable lead at the break, with Joel Cooper opening the scoring after just 96 seconds after being found by Matthew Fitzpatrick in the area before finishing with his left-foot past Gareth Deane.

Kirk Millar doubled Linfield's advantage on 19 minutes, with Cooper turning provider on this occasion with a low cross into the box towards the back post for Millar to find the top left corner.

Then, ten minutes from the break, Cooper hit his second of the evening on the follow up into the bottom left corner after Euan East's initial attempt was parried by Deane.

By contrast, it took a Joe Gormley finish on 65 minutes for Cliftonville to get the better of Dungannon Swifts at Solitude.

A Shea Gordon cross low into the area caused problems for the Swifts, with Gormley turning the ball towards goal for what proved to be the winner.

And Crusaders also needed just one goal to get past Ballymena United at The Showgrounds, with the vital strike coming after just five minutes.

Daniel Larmour unleashed Jacob Blaney down the right, and his angled cross into the area was directed home courtesy of a Kieran Offord diving header.

Loughgall and Portadown battled to a share of the spoils in an entertaining encounter at Lakeview Park.

Ryan Mayse fired the Ports in front early on when, from a poor pass, he pounced on the ball to lift a shot over keeper Nathan Gartside.

Then, five minutes after that, Nathaniel Ferris levelled for the Villagers when he met a free-kick from the right to scramble the ball home.

Portadown moved back into the lead early in the second half after Mayse pulled the ball across the face of goal for Josh Ukek to finish past Gartside.

But back came Loughgall around a quarter-of-an-hour after that courtesy of a Tiernan Kelly strike that took a deflection off Lewis MacKinnon as it went past keeper Aaron McCarey.

Meanwhile neither Glentoran nor Coleraine could find a way through in a scoreless draw at the BetMcLean Oval.