Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Linfield in the hat for last 16
Spartans 1 Linfield 2 BY KEN LAGAN
STEPHEN LOWRY admits Linfield are desperate to prove themselves in the Irn-bru Cup after being blown away by Celtic in the Champions League.
David Healy’s champions made a winning return to Scottish soil with a 2-1 victory over Lowland League Spartans to reach the last 16 on Saturday at Ainslie Park.
Although Lowry – who scored their second – insists there was no shame in the 6-0 aggregate defeat by the Hoops he wants the Blues to now show what they’re made of.
He said: “We feel like we’re representing Northern Ireland when we’re in this competition.
“We want to improve our reputation in Scotland and Wales because we’ve maybe damaged it a wee bit with Celtic beating us.
“We kept it respectable against Celtic. The surroundings were a bit different from Celtic Park but we got a good test from Spartans.
“We want to do as well as possible. We won three cups last year and this ranks highly.
“We’re confident we can do well in this competition this year.”
Louis Rooney put Linfield ahead with a 39th-minute penalty before Lowry planted a low shot in the corner of the net three minutes into the second half.
Blair Atkinson set up a tense finish with a closerange strike on 74 minutes but Linfield held on.
Meanwhile, Crusaders beat Motherwell’s U20 side 3-2 at Seaview on Saturday.
Billy Joe Burns popped up with a stoppage-time header to steal the win.