David Healy may have been feeling the chill on the sidelines at a bitterly cold Mourneview Park but he was warmed by the red-hot performance from his Linfield side as they blew Glenavon away.
Healy admitted after the game he could have done with a few more layers due to the wintery conditions, but nothing could take away his delight as the Blues closed the gap at the top of the league with a scintillating second half display.
To their credit both teams tried their best to serve up an entertaining contest in the first half in some challenging conditions.
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Andrew Clarke's deflected opener put the visitors in front before Conor McCloskey bagged a well-worked equaliser for the Lurgan Blues.
It was a different story after the break though as Sam Roscoe, Eetu Vertainen, Max Haygarth and two Chris Shields' penalties made it six of the best for Linfield.
"That performance warmed me,” said Healy.
“I thought we deserved to be be in front at half time and we just reassured the players to keep going.
“I didn’t want to be negative because I thought we more than done enough to have at least two, possibly three goals at that stage.
“The performance was upped from the first half and we got the second and third goal and when the boys are playing in the way that we did in the second half it is easier to make the substitutions and get minutes importantly for the games that we have ahead.
“I thought some of our goals in the second half were well worked goals – brilliant goals.
“The manner of the victory today was probably more pleasing.”
Glenavon boss Gary Hamilton admitted he did not see that second half coming at the break, but took his share of responsibility for chasing the game.
“I thought we were excellent in the first half and against a strong wind we competed and defended our goal really well,” said Hamilton.
“Second half wasn’t acceptable, it wasn’t anywhere near good enough and I have to take responsibility as well.
“I changed the shape and went positive in the second half, put two back up top. In the first half we went a goal behind and went to 4-3-3 because they had an extra midfielder in there and against the wind we weren’t getting distance on our clearances and they were picking up too many second balls and playing on the front foot.
“We changed it, it worked and then we changed it again in the second half to go positive and try to win the game.
“Looking back now I should have changed it after the second goal and went back to 4-3-3 and tried to give ourselves a chance in the game.
“We we went 3-1 down it was probably too late and then as we tried to get our subs on they made it 4-1 from a penalty.”
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