Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
DAVID'S BLUES ARE FOURSOME
Linfield 4 Carrick 0
A FOUR-GOAL blitz in the space of 12 minutes saw Linfield ease to three points against Carrick Rangers.
Carrick showed plenty of determination early on as they got into the faces of their opponents, working relentlessly to condense the space then sending the ball forward quickly when the chance arose to keep the home defence on its toes.
A single long-range shot, wafted high and wide by Blues midfielder Stephen Fallon, was evidence of a successful first 25 minutes from Stuart King’s men before their first sign of slackness was ruthlessly punished.
It was player of the month, Chris Shields, who upped the tempo, breaking forward from midfield only to be brought down before he could set Christy Manzinga through on goal. But the in-form French striker remained switched on, which is more than could be said for the visitors’ defence, who simply stood and watched as Maninzga rose unchallenged to ram a header into the top corner from Kirk Millar’s free-kick.
To concede so cheaply once is a mistake but to do so twice is careless, and that’s what King’s side were as they allowed centre-back Sam Roscoe to butt home Marty Donnelly’s corner from the right just before the half hour.
It was game over in the 35th minute when Mickey Newberry broke forward from right- back and whipped in a tantalising low cross for Manzinga, who slammed the ball home at the second attempt after Neil Shields had initially pulled off a fine pointblank save.
The rampant Blues made it 4-0 two minutes as Donnelly found a big pocket of space on the edge of box to fire a right-foot volley at goal that went straight through the shellshocked Shields.