The Blues needed just three minutes when an attempted Andrew Ferguson clearance deflected off Billy Joe Burns and past Alvin Rouse.

And they made it 2-0 just three minutes later courtesy of a Peter Thompson flick after Curtis Allen had delivered from the left.

It almost got even worse for Dungannon on 25 minutes when Craig McClean was adjudged to have handled in the area but JP Gallagher was unable to beat Rouse from the subsequent spot-kick.

But, two minutes, later the Swifts were reduced to ten men after Neil McCafferty was dismissed by referee Adrian McCourt for dissent ..... only to be joined by his manager Dixie Robinson for a similar offence!

Allen then added a third on 31 minutes with a fantastic overhead kick after Burns had combined with Philip Lowry for the former to deliver a ball into the box.

Then, a minute from the break, Linfield suffered the dismissal of Burns after he picked up his second yellow card for kicking the ball away.

Dungannon almost pulled a goal back on 73 minutes through Timmy Adamson only to hit the post from a corner but within a minute their challenge fizzled out when they experienced a second sending off after Michael Ward walked for bringing down Robert Garrett.

Jim Ervin completed the scoring seven minutes from time with a successfully converted penalty after Alain Emerson was guilty of bringing down Allen inside the area.