COLERAINE were beaten for the first time in the BOYLE Sports Premiership this season as Linfield left The Showgrounds with all three points...

Ruaidhri Higgins elected to ring the changes from last weekend's victory against Limavady United - five in total - as Lyndon Kane, Rob Slevin, Jay Henderson, Ben Wylie and Matthew Shevlin were drafted in.

In front of a sold-out crowd, Coleraine threatened first when Jay Henderson picked up space on the right-hand side and his cross was headed over by Matthew Shevlin who managed to get contact on the ball between two Linfield defenders.

However, Linfield struck first on nine minutes as a quick free-kick allowed Adam Frizzell through on goal and the midfielder picked his spot with a finish into the far corner.

Linfield, who travelled to The Showgrounds unbeaten after an opening day loss to Ballymena United, then went close through two headers as Lewis Webb had to deny Kobei Moore and Rhys Brennan.

But there was nothing Webb could do as Linfield doubled their advantage on 25 minutes. A long throw into the area was cleared as far as Chris Shields who hit an instinctive effort outside the box into the net.

Coleraine made three changes at the break and thought they had pulled one back on 57 minutes as Shevlin headed in from a corner. However, referee Evan Boyce adjudged there was a foul in the build-up.

From the resulting phase of play, Linfield made it 3-0 as a ball released the run of Moore who managed to sprint into the box and dispatch beyond the dive of Webb.

To their credit, Coleraine kept pushing to get back into the game and they reduced the arrears on 77 minutes when Shevlin was picked out inside the box and the striker managed to drag his effort into the bottom corner.

The final chance of setting up a potential grandstand finish was rebuffed with two minutes of normal time left when Joel Cooper's curling effort from outside the box failed to land the right side of the post as Coleraine lost out.

COLERAINE: Webb, Kane (Ives ’46 mins), Boyle (Brooks ’61 mins), Patching, Shevlin, Cooper, Wilson, Henderson, Slevin (Stewart ’46 mins), Wylie (Thomson ’46 mins), Doherty (Devine ’71 mins).

Subs Not Used: Schofield (GK), McGregor.

LINFIELD: Johns, Shields, McClean, Frizzell, Nelson (Brown ’75 mins), Hall, Brennan (Wells ’67 mins), Baird, McGee, Moore (Chapman ’84 mins), McCullough.

Subs Not Used: Glavin (GK), Nolan, Annett, Temetan.

Referee: Evan Boyce