Michael Carvill led the scoring with his first hat-trick for the club while the evergreen Glenn Ferguson and Mark Miskimmin weighed in with two apiece.

Carvill opened the scoring with two goals inside a minute. On 12 minutes he got on the end of a Billy Joe Burns pass to confidently beat Michael Doherty from close range before doubling up sixty seconds later when Damien Curran delivered a through ball to which he ran on to slot the ball under the 'Stute keeper.

And Carvill turned provider ten minutes later when he crossed for Ferguson to open his tally for the night.

That was how it stayed until the Blues hit their visitors with a four goal blast in the final quarter-of-an-hour or so.

Linfield's fourth arrived on 74 minutes when a Ferguson effort from a Jamie Mulgrew ball from the right almost crept over the line although Carvill was on hand to make sure to lay claim to the matchball.

Miskimmin added a fifth on 86 minutes with a finish from a Stephen Douglas throw-in before taking the ball past a defender to beat Doherty a couple of minutes later after finding himself unmarked in the area.

Ferguson then doubled his own tally on the whistle with number seven after Mulgrew found him from a corner to complete the scoring.

Picture Gallery (click to enlarge) Pictures: William Cherry/PressEye