Linfield maintained their advantage in the Irish Premiership title race after a 1-1 draw with nearest challengers Larne at Inver Park.
Matthew Fitzpatrick cancelled out Lee Bonis’ opener and the Blues remain a point clear with a game in hand.
Ben Gallagher scored a hat-trick as Dungannon Swifts beat Newry City 5-0.
Ballymena United picked up a 1-0 win at Glenavon, Loughgall piled more misery on Coleraine with a 3-1 win while Crusaders beat Carrick Rangers 2-0.
The match between Glentoran and Cliftonville was postponed because of a waterlogged pitch at the Oval.
Linfield head into the New Year top of the Irish Premiership after a 1-1 draw with Larne at Inver Park.
The deadlock was broken in just eight minutes, as Bonis got on the end of an Andy Ryan through ball, took the ball around Chris Johns in goal and made no mistake to net his ninth goal of the season.
Linfield responded 20 minutes later with a goal from out of the blue. Michael Newberry played a one-two with Daniel Finlayson down the right hand side and crossed into a dangerous area, where Fitzpatrick was on hand to power his header home.
The Blues did have the ball in the net once more before half-time, again through the head of Fitzpatrick who found the bottom corner from Kirk Millar’s right-footed cross. However, the Linfield striker had just drifted marginally offside.
The second half did produce a few chances for both Linfield and Larne, but neither side could find a way to find that elusive winning goal.
Big wins for Dungannon and Ballymena
Dungannon Swifts broke out for their biggest victory of the season, heaping more misery on bottom side Newry City in the process.
The opening quarter of an hour was actually fairly even but the hosts broke the deadlock from the spot. Gallagher sent Steven Maguire the wrong way after the Newry keeper needlessly fouled Cahal McGinty.
He then got his second with a lovely curling finish from the edge of the box with his instep first-time.
The hosts then had a second penalty shortly after when Leo Alves was scythed down by Stephen Moan and Gallagher grabbed the ball in search of his hat-trick. However, Maguire somewhat redeemed himself with a good save.
The Dungannon number forward wasn’t to be denied and his third came just a couple of minutes later with a lovely finish from the edge of the box low and hard into the bottom corner.
The game was turning into a training game for the hosts and whatever interim Newry coach Damien Hillen said at half-time did not have the desired effect. Five minutes into the second half, the Newry defence failed to track the run of Leo Alves who curled a lovely finish from Kealan Dillon’s pass.
Dillion was provider turned scorer for the fifth with a neat finish from the edge of the box via the post.
Ballymena United claimed back-to-back league wins for the first time this season as Fraser Taylor’s brilliant individual goal earned them a 1-0 win at Glenavon.
In a scrappy opening period, Peter Campbell’s curling effort went close for Glenavon, while Stephen Teggart’s snapshot for the home side was met with a sharp reflex save by Sean O’Neill.
Instead it was the visitors who broke the deadlock on 36 minutes with a fantastic individual goal from Taylor. The Scottish midfielder collected a misplaced pass inside his own half and set off on a surging run which culminated with a neat finish into the bottom corner of the net from the edge of the penalty area.
Glenavon dominated possession in the second period with O’Neill springing to his right to palm away a Danny Wallace header.
Despite Glenavon piling on the pressure, both Stephen Teggart and Calum Birney wasted chances to rescue a draw for the home side in stoppage time.
The results takes Dungannon onto 21 points and Ballymena onto 18, moving both sides clear of Newry who sit bottom on 12 points.
Loughgall and Crusaders pick up wins
Loughgall made it back-to-back league wins with a deserved 3-1 win at Coleraine, who have now lost their last four matches.
The visitors broke the deadlock in the 37th minute through their leading scorer, Benji Magee.
A Coleraine corner at one end was cleared as far as the frontman who ran at the heart of the Coleraine defence before planting a right foot shot past Gareth Deane from an acute angle.
The home side created precious little in the first half, Darren Cole’s header from a Lee Lynch corner the closest they came to scoring, but they drew level six minutes after the restart.
A superb pass from Aaron Jarvis released Lee Lynch on the wing and he squared unselfishly for Davy McDaid to tap home from close range on his return from suspension.
However, they were rocked just a minute later as Loughgall went in front for a second time as Nathaniel Ferris headed home at the back post.
And they stretched their lead on the hour when Ferris scored his second of the afternoon from the penalty spot after Magee had been fouled inside the box by Dean Jarvis.
At Seaview, Crusaders dominated the first half but struggled to break the deadlock with Jordan Owens and Lloyd Anderson firing wide before Carrick Rangers goalkeeper Ross Glendinning made a great save to palm away Jordan Forsythe’s goal-bound volley.
Paul Heatley opened the scoring on the 49th minute after Owens nodded Jonathan Tuffey’s long ball into the path of the winger, who controlled and slotted through the legs of Glendinning.
Things went from bad to worse for Stuart King’s men in the 60th minute when Kurtis Forsythe was shown a second yellow card for bringing down Heatley, after also being cautioned in the first half for fouling the 36-year-old.
Five minutes later, the home side doubled their lead when Owens steered home Billy Joe Burns looping cross.
In additional time, Anderson’s powerful effort was tipped over the crossbar with the north Belfast side unable to convert the resulting corner.
Coleraine | 1-3 | Loughgall |
Crusaders | 2-0 | Carrick Rangers |
Dungannon Swifts | 5-0 | Newry City |
Glenavon | 0-1 | Ballymena United |
Larne | 1-1 | Linfield |
Glentoran | -P- | Cliftonville |