The first league weekend of the new calendar year produced victories for Linfield, Dungannon Swifts, Portadown and, on Friday night, defending champions Larne.

Linfield continue to lead the way at the top – now with a 12-point advantage to their name – after hitting three goals without reply past Carrick Rangers at Windsor Park.

Scoreless at the break, Joel Cooper edged the Blues in front on 49 minutes with low left-foot curling effort past Ross Glendinning after cutting inside from the right.

Euan East doubled up just five minutes after that with a driven effort from the left after being teed up by Cameron Ballantyne.

Matthew Fitzpatrick completed the scoring midway through the second half when he got the faintest of touches to Kirk Millar’s delivery from the right.

Dungannon Swifts are back into second spot following an impressive 5-1 defeat of Crusaders at Seaview.

Rodney McAree’s side got off to a brilliant start with two goals in the opening quarter-of-an-hour.

John McGovern hit the opener on five minutes after connecting with a Leo Alves ball over the top to fire low into the opposite corner.

Brandon Bermingham added a second nine minutes later when he was first to connect with a Dean Curry header back across the face of goal.

McGovern bagged his second of the afternoon early in the second half after combining with Kealan Dillon in a one-two.

Tomas Galvin claimed Dungannon’s fourth a couple of minutes from the end of normal time after exploiting the space afforded him on the edge of the area, and whilst Jordan Owens did grab a 90^th minute consolation for the Crues Galvin popped up again deep into added time with the best goal of the afternoon – a sublime curling 30-yard free-kick into the top corner – to round off a sensational day for the visitors.

Portadown’s great season also continued with a one-goal victory over bottom of the table Loughgall at Lakeview Park.

Recent arrival James Teelan knocked home what proved to be the winner just after the half-hour mark after being alert to Ryan Mayse’s backheel to direct the ball past keeper Nathan Gartside.

Meanwhile, on Friday night, Larne hit two second half goals without reply past Cliftonville at Inver Park.

Gary Haveron’s men moved in front less than a minute into the second half when Luke Conlan turned the ball into his own net under pressure from Dylan Sloan following good work down the left by Ives and Joe Thomson.

And Larne made sure of the points with just over ten minutes remaining when Sloan drove the ball home after Aaron Donnelly and Benji Magee had combined to create the opening.

The games Ballymena United v Glentoran and Glenavon v Coleraine were postponed due to frozen pitches.