Larne secured a comfortable 2-0 home win over Newry City to extend their lead at the top of the Irish Premiership table to eight points.
Goals from Fuad Sule and Tomas Cosgrove gave Tiernan Lynch’s men a win that ensures they will be top at Christmas.
Bottom side Portadown responded to having last weekend’s win overturned by beating Ballymena United 1-0 for their first victory of the season.
Dungannon Swifts won 4-1 at home to 10-man Carrick Rangers.
Fifth-placed Glentoran’s home match against Glenavon was postponed due to a frozen pitch at The Oval.
Second-placed Linfield were in Scottish Challenge Cup action, losing to Kelty Hearts on penalties, while Crusaders in third lost to Coleraine on Friday night.
Sule and Cosgrove strike in Larne win
At Inver Park, hosts Larne took the lead on 12 minutes when Ben Doherty’s outswinging corner was only half-cleared and Sule was on hand to drill home through a ruck of players from 14 yards.
Larne came close to a second when Leroy Millar’s header was saved by Newry keeper Steven Maguire, who excelled again shortly afterwards when he blocked a Doherty shot with his foot.
Larne dominated in the early stages of the second period and doubled their lead four minutes after the restart when Cosgrove met Shea Gordon’s corner with a neat volley at the near post.
Newry almost pulled a goal back on 58 minutes when Donal Rocks’ free-kick wasn’t cleared and the ball fell to Daniel Hughes, whose fierce left-footed shot came back off the crossbar.
Cosgrove almost grabbed a second when his downward header from a Mark Randall corner was superbly saved by the impressive Maguire.
Portadown bounce back with win over Ballymena
Portadown went into Saturday’s match at home to Ballymena United having had last weekend’s victory over Newry City overturned for fielding an ineligible player – a decision from NIFL that the Ports are appealing.
Niall Currie’s men bounced back by keeping their first clean sheet of the season as a Josh Archer first-half goal gave them a 1-0 victory over Ballymena United at Shamrock Park.
The hosts started brightly and Paddy McNally blazed over from six yards before Ballymena had a spell of sustained pressure, with Josh Kelly denied by Jethren Barr and Jordan Gibson scuffing his shot when well placed.
For the last 20 minutes of the half it was all Portadown, with visiting keeper Sean O’Neill repeatedly called into action before finally being beaten by Archer’s close-range finish, while Steven McCullough also had to be alert to hack off the line as the home team reached half time in the ascendancy.
The Ports continued where they left off in the second half with Jenkins coming close before Ballymena finally came to life with Davy McDaid having a shot saved, but they could not find an equaliser.
Swifts win as Rangers finish with 10 men
A straight red card for Carrick Rangers’ Emmet McGuckin put an end to his side’s hopes of claiming any points against Dungannon Swifts, who ran out 4-1 winners with a double from James Knowles.
The former Linfield midfielder opened the scoring for the hosts with a well-taken penalty after Mark Surgenor went into the back of Rhyss Campbell in the box.
Dungannon then took a 2-0 lead when Marc Walsh was on hand to tap the ball into the net after Ross Glendinning saved a good shot from Rhyss Campbell.
But Carrick Rangers came out with real intensity after the break and Alex Gawne’s shot was parried into the path of Lloyd Anderson, who swept home from close range.
McGuckin was given a straight red card for a coming together with Mayowa Animasahun and, soon after, the Swifts grabbed a third goal through Campbell after some stellar work from Walsh, who found Campbell unmarked in the Rangers box.
Knowles then grabbed his second with a wonderful finish, running on to a beautiful Ben Gallagher flick to score with what was the final kick of the game.
