The Blues enjoyed a bright start and might have taken an early lead when Paul Munster glanced a header wide of the post while only a crucial Johnny Montgomery block denied Jim Ervin.

At the other end Neil McCafferty tested Stuart Addis from 30 yards with a stinging free-kick before Craig McClean and Marc McCann combined to tee up Shane Coney but he too was unable to find a way past Addis.

The deadlock was almost broken just after the half-hour mark when struck the post before 'keeper Niall Morgan recovered to hold onto Michael Carvill's follow up.

And the visitors had further chances to open the scoring before the break when first Munster and Kris Lindsay produced top drawer saves from the young 'keeper.

Linfield were made pay for those missed chances just three minutes into the second half after they failed to clear a Neil McCafferty free-kick allowing Shane Coney to turn the loose ball beyond Stuart Addis into the bottom corner.

Dungannon doubled their advantage on 61 minutes thanks to a superb Timmy Adamson goal which saw him take the ball past the visiting defence before finishing clinically past Addis.

But Linfield responded within six minutes courtesy of a Billy Joe Burns cross from the right which Munster headed past Morgan.

The Blues were given a further boost just a couple of minutes after that when Swifts defender Andrew Ferguson was shown a straight red card by referee David Malcolm following a challenge on Mulgrew.

Linfield still had to wait until the 87th minute to grab the equaliser, though, after Stephen Douglas rose unchallenged to meet a Philip Lowry corner from the left with his head.