Irish Premiership: Clinical Linfield punish toothless Glentoran to secure comfortable Big Two win

Clinical Linfield punished toothless Glentoran to secure a comfortable 3-0 Big Two win at The Oval.

Home goalkeeper Ross Glendinning was at fault for Matt Green's opener, Trai Hume headed the second unmarked and Cammy Palmer beat Glendinning in a tackle for the third after half-time.

The victory moves the Blues up to third in the table, with Larne climbing to second with a 1-0 win over Glenavon.

Ballymena United came from 3-1 down to beat Dungannon Swifts 4-3.

The Glentoran supporters let their anger be heard at the end of the match in east Belfast as Mick McDermott's men suffered back-to-back 3-0 defeats in the Irish Premiership.

It was a hugely below-par performance from the Glens, with poor goalkeeping and defending proving costly as the Glens suffered a third league defeat in six outings this campaign.

They made a decent start with Jay Donnelly missing a good opportunity early on and Shay McCartan producing a smart save from Chris Johns with a curler before Green opened the scoring in the 20th minute.

A mistake by Caolan Marron put the striker, in for the suspended Christy Manzinga, through and his low drive was straight at Glendinning but the keeper let it go through his legs and into the net.

Blues skipper Jamie Mulgrew was then forced off injured and replaced by Palmer, but it not dent the title holders' dominance as they doubled their lead on 34 minutes.

A Kirk Millar corner from the right made its way to youngster Hume at the back post and he headed home the second of the night.

The third goal arrived six minutes into the second half. Stephen Fallon played a clever through ball that Palmer ran on to and, as he and Glendinning contested a 50-50 tackle, the midfielder was stronger and was able to force the ball home from the edge of the box.

McDermott made a number of changes as the half progressed but he was unable to prevent Linfield strolling to what was their third win in five league matches.

Larne moved into second place with with a well-deserved 1-0 win over Glenavon at Mourneview Park.

After failing to score in their previous two games, Andy Mitchell's spectacular long-range strike 11 minutes from time was enough to claim victory for Tiernan Lynch's side.

Larne might have gone in front on 34 minutes when Cian Bolger headed Ben Doherty's corner goalwards and Mark Randall poked an effort wide from close range.

The visitors continued to boss proceedings at the start of the second half but Glenavon almost grabbed the lead when Kyle Beggs cut in from the left and his low shot was diverted clear by the legs of Rohan Ferguson.

At the other end, Mark Randall's angled drive looked to have given Larne the lead but Brown sprang across his goal to brilliantly fingertip the effort wide.

It was a spectacular strike from Andy Mitchell who let fly from long-range and his effort sailed over the head of Brown and into the net, with Glenavon unable to fashion an equaliser in the closing stages.

Ballymena recovered from 2-0 down at half-time and 3-1 in arrears during the second half to claim their first league win of the season and leapfrog Dungannon into ninth place in the table.

Ethan McGee gave Swifts a 28th-minute lead when Joe McCready fed the ball into his path and when his first shot was blocked, he fired into the bottom corner with his second attempt.

McCready doubled the advantage five minutes before the interval when he unleashed a 20-yard right-foot shot past Jordan Williamson.

Four minutes after the resumption Chris Rodgers headed home from Ross Redman's corner, but Rhyss Campbell had the visitors two goals to the good again when he tapped in at the back post after McCready's initial strike had been saved.

Just after the hour mark, Caolan Loughran became the second United centre-half to head in from a Redman corner and then home skipper Leroy Millar equalised with a looping header from a deep free-kick after Alex Moore came a long way to collect.

The decisive goal came on 74, substitute Jonte Smith looking to have got the final touch as the ball trickled into the net after confusion between the goalkeeper and his defenders.