David Healy praises Jack Scott after coming off the bench to score brace in Linfield's victory over Loughgall

​The 21-year-old was introduced as a 24th minute substitute for defender Daniel Finlayson, who was forced off after a nasty head collision with Tiernan Kelly – the Loughgall midfielder was able to continue heavily-bandaged.

Scott broke the deadlock with his first league goal since returning to the Blues from Wolves this summer on the stroke of half-time with a fine finish from the edge of the box before pouncing on a Berraat Turker error in the 70th minute.

Saturday marked the first time Scott hasn’t been included in Healy’s starting line-up and the former Northern Ireland international was impressed by his response.

"Jack would have been disappointed not to start but it’s important when anyone comes on that they are ready,” he said. "He proved he was with two crucial goals.”

Scoring just before the break – Scott converted following fine work from Kyle McClean – crushed Loughgall’s spirits after they had two massive opportunities to take the lead through Nathaniel Ferris and Benji Magee.

Neither were converted and Linfield were showed their ruthless streak.

"I’ve been down at Loughgall on numerous occasions from last year so I knew how competitive it was going to be,” added Healy. "Their record at home is perhaps disappointing, but they’ve been more than competitive with Coleraine and Glentoran and drew against Glenavon in a game they were winning 2-0.

"I thought there were stages of the game where we were pretty good and if anything we’re probably a bit disappointed with only scoring two goals.

"It (the goal) gives you more belief going into the second-half that what we were doing was correct.

"We discussed this week about coming down and you want to play pretty football, score goals and create lots of chances, but we knew today that we needed to be limited in terms of play in the middle with the condensed pitch area.

"We needed to play forward quickly.

"(Matthew) Fitzpatrick was good, Chris McKee – we had two players who were not only willing to run in behind but keep the ball for us high up the pitch.”

Healy’s men, who have won four of the last five Premiership titles, returned to the summit once again ahead of Tuesday night’s crunch clash with Crusaders at Windsor Park.

While nice to be leading the pack, the Linfield chief says it’s crucial that they continue showing the sort of form that has resulted in them losing only one of their opening eight league fixtures of the season.

"It’s still so early in the season,” he said. "It’s important you’re in and around where you want to be and in striking distance come the end of the season.

"We changed some personnel, changed the shape a bit and got the desired result.

"It’s important we keep going.”