David Healy says 'wrong attitude' got Linfield into early Irish Cup trouble against Warrenpoint Town before character pulled them through

The Premier Intermediate League visitors, who lost manager Barry Gray during the week, stunned the Premiership leaders as substitute Aaron Corish handed Warrenpoint a 28th minute lead before Jim O’Hanlon – an Irish Cup winner with Linfield’s bitter rivals Glentoran in 2015 – doubled their advantage by poking his shot past David Walsh shortly after.

Chris McKee pulled one back on the stroke of half-time, capitalising on a defensive mistake, and his 68th minute strike brought the teams level.

After a sustained period of pressure, Darragh McBrien found an important goal to put Linfield nerves at ease and Matthew Fitzpatrick made sure of progression with 10 minutes to play, setting up a sixth round home clash against Ballymena United.

"I wish we didn't need to show the character we did,” said Healy. “It would have been nice if we had have done it properly.

"We under-performed in the first-half and that was down to one thing - the wrong attitude. We warned the players yesterday and warned them today that wrong attitudes in cup competitions can get you found out.

"Thankfully we found the right attitude and right formula in the second-half in changing the shape and got the desired outcome in the end.

"No disrespect to Warrenpoint, but we shouldn't have been finding ourselves at 2-0 down. We got to grips with the game and McKee scored a big goal for us just before half-time.

"Sometimes you have to credit the opposition in how they set up. I know John Gill well and the type of background he has from Dundalk in how to set a team up, so we knew coming into the game that it has been a tough and strenuous week for them.

"Sometimes we use that siege mentality that you need and I think they had a bit of it today. We certainly deserved to go through.”

Healy made six changes from Tuesday’s team that put the Blues four points clear at the Premiership’s summit with a 1-0 victory over Crusaders as teenagers Aodhan Doherty and Ryan McKay were drafted into the starting line-up alongside Walsh, McBrien, Michael Newberry and goal hero McKee.

Ultimately, Linfield extended their unbeaten run across competitions to eight, but Healy has warned his squad that they can’t afford to make slow starts.

"We've been a winning team over the last seven or eight games and you try to freshen up to give people opportunities,” he added. “I'm always on to players that when they aren't playing to make sure they are physically ready to go into it, and maybe today one or two weren't at the required standard of where they need to be to really push and be banging the door down to ask when they're going to be playing.

"Some of them are young, coming back from injuries and there's leeway with that, but we can't afford to be going 2-0 down too many times throughout the season."