Linfield and Carrick win as Swifts draw with Coleraine

Linfield got their Irish Premiership campaign off to a winning start as a second-half goal from Chris McKee and Chris Shields’ penalty gave them a 2-0 win over Ballymena United at the Showgrounds on Saturday.

The Blues dominated after the break as they began their bid to improve on their runners-up positions in both of the last two seasons, having won the league in five of the six previous seasons.

First-half strikes from Curtis Allen and Nedas Maciulaitis saw Carrick Rangers defeat Glenavon 2-0 at Taylors Avenue.

Kealan Dillon’s stunning strike had Dungannon Swifts 1-0 ahead against Coleraine at the break at Stangmore Park but Matthew Shevlin levelled with nine minutes remaining as it finished 1-1.

Crusaders won 1-0 at Glentoran on the opening night of the new term on Friday, while Cliftonville host Portadown in the final game of the weekend at Solitude on Sunday (15:00 BST) on a game which will be live on BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website.

Larne’s game against Loughgall was postponed because of the former’s continued involvement in the Uefa Conference League.

Linfield came close to taking the lead when Kirk Millar’s free kick to the back post was volleyed across the face of goal by Euan East but no-one was able to get the decisive touch.

Ballymena responded with a low-first-time shot from Josh Carson which was saved at full stretch by Chris Johns.

Linfield pressed again with Matthew Fitzpatrick laying the ball off for Millar but United keeper Sean O’Neill was able to flick the ball over the crossbar.

The visitors broke the deadlock on 54 minutes when Millar whipped in a free kick with pace on the right had side of the Ballymena penalty area and McKee was alert to divert the ball past Sean O’Neill.

Ballymena struggled to create clear chances but Aaron Jarvis came close with a header from an Alex Gawne cross which was turned behind by Johns.

The visitors wrapped up the points with eight minutes left when Donal Rocks brought down Joel Cooper in the area and Shields sent Sean O’Neill the wrong way from the resultant spot kick.

After a cagey opening quarter-of-an-hour, it was the hosts who grew into the game and opened the scoring after 17 minutes.

Joe Crowe swing in a corner from the right that was headed into the ground by Luke McCullough and the ball bounced towards goal where Allen got himself in front of Gareth Deane to nod home.

It was one-way traffic after this point as the impressive Danny Gibson found space in behind the Lurgan Blues’ defence time and time again, and it was no surprise when the home team doubled their lead just after the half-hour mark.

A mix-up in the Glenavon defence allowed Maciulaitis to get a toe on the ball to race through on goal. He calmly rolled the ball wide of keeper Gareth Deane before sliding it into an empty net.

After the break Glenavon had long-range efforts from David Toure and David McDaid before the hour mark, but neither troubled Ross Glendinning in goal.

As the game entered its final stages it became more stretched and there were glaring misses for Gibson, who missed an open goal when scoring seemed easier in the final minute of normal time, and then Kurtis Forsythe came to the rescue in stoppage time, sliding to block a Peter Campbell effort.

Coleraine’s new professional era began with a hard-fought 1-1 draw with Dungannon.

Dillon fired the hosts into a 25th minute lead and they maintained that advantage until nine minutes from time when Shevlin equalised for the visitors.

There was little to choose between the teams in tense opening exchanges until Dillon broke the deadlock with a spectacular strike from fully 25 yards midway through the opening half, Rory Brown well beaten in the Coleraine goal.

They came close to doubling their advantage on the stroke of half-time when Brown made amends for the goal when he got a vital touch to deflect Andrew Mitchell’s goal bound effort over the crossbar.

And they were made to pay in the closing stages when Shevlin, last season’s top scorer for the Bannsiders, came up trumps for his team once again, capitalising on a defensive mistake to skip past Dean Curry and rifle the ball high into the net past a helpless Declan Dunne.