Linfield boss David Healy saluted his boys’ fourth Premiership win on the bounce – but insisted they made life difficult for themselves in the 1-0 win against battling Carrick Rangers.

The Blues missed chance after chance at Windsor Park – due to some poor finishing and an extraordinary goalkeeper performance from Nathan Gartside – but couldn’t relax until Ben Hall grabbed the winner 10 minutes after the break.

Even though Carrick finished the game with only nine men, they proved to be a tough nut to crack for Healy’s in-form team.

The pendulum swung in Linfield’s favour three minutes after the interval when defender Jimmy Callacher was dismissed by referee Evan Boyce after a ‘last man’ foul on Blues striker Kobei Moore.

placeholder image — Linfield's Isaac Baird (left) battling with Paul Heatley in the Premiership victory over Carrick Rangers at Windsor Park. (Photo by David Maginnis/Pacemaker Press)

And the bottom fell right out of the visitors’ challenge in added time when striker Paul Heatley was red-carded after an incident with Linfield’s Dane McCullough.

“We knew Carrick would be difficult to break down, they came here with bags of experience,” said Healy. “We had some good play, but couldn’t capitalise on the chances we created.

“With the likes Luke McCullough, Jimmy Callacher and Billy Joe Burns at the back something we didn’t want to do is throw a lot of high balls into the box...they would eat them up all day.

“We spoke about putting the ball in the box, but they must be quality balls. We eventually got the breakthrough. It was a quality ball in from Kirk (Millar) and a great header by Ben.

“Fair play to the boys...they could have quite easily felt sorry for themselves after the opening day defeat. We put another three points on the board, which was great.”

Healy also saluted the performance of Gartside, adding "sometimes, you’ve got to applaud that”.

Crusaders manager Stephen Baxter insisted his boys never got out of the traps.

“Linfield should really have been home and hosed by half-time,” he said. “Our goalkeeper made three or four fantastic saves...it was one-way traffic. That really disappointed me because we were not brave enough to step into the game the way we should have.

“Getting a man sent off just after half-time (Callacher) was ridiculous from our point…‘BBR’ (Ben Buchanan-Rolleston) under-cooked a pass to Jimmy, it was a shocking pass. It put us behind the eight ball right away...the result will say 1-0 but we weren’t good enough in regards to how we performed.”

LINFIELD: Chris Johns, Chris Shields, Kirk Millar, Kyle McClean, Adam Frizzell, Ben Hall, Isaac Baird, Ethan McGee, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Kobei Moore, Dane McCullough. Subs: Aidan Glavin, Kitt Nelson, Dylan Wells, Rhys Brennan, Sean Brown, Rhys Annett, Charlie Chapman.

CARRICK RANGERS: Nathan Gartside, Billy Joe Burns, Jordan Forsythe, Jimmy Callacher, Danny Gibson, Luke McCullough, Aidan Steele, Benjamin Buchanan-Rolleston, Joe Crowe, Paul Heatley, Matthew Snoddy. Subs: Dylan Agnew, Kym Nelson, Daire O'Connor, Seanan Clucas, Nedas Maciulaitis, Joe Moore, Kyle Cherry.