Coleraine defeat Blues as Glens win and Larne held

Coleraine breathed fresh life into their Irish Premiership title challenge and simultaneously dealt a serious blow to Linfield's ambitions of retaining their crown by defeating the Blues 3-1 at Ballycastle Road on Tuesday night.

Second-half goals from Joel Cooper, Jamie McGonigle and Will Patching saw the Bannsiders secure three points, Chris McKee the scorer for Linfield with a late penalty.

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Coleraine move to within four points of leaders Larne, who were held to a 0-0 draw by Cliftonville, but have two games in hand over Ruaidhri Higgins' side.

David Healy's side have now lost three league games in a row and drop to fifth place in the table behind Dungannon Swifts, who won 1-0 at Glenavon courtesy of a Junior Ogedi-Uzokwe goal.

The victory ends a run of two successive defeats for Coleraine.

Glentoran made it three consecutive victories by coming from behind to beat Portadown 2-1 at the Oval, Pat Hoban netting the decisive strike from the penalty spot.

Bangor came out on top 2-0 at home to Ballymena United and Crusaders drew 2-2 with Carrick Rangers at Seaview.