Irish Cup quarter-final: Cliftonville 0-3 Linfield

Ross Gaynor scored twice and Andrew Waterworth once as Linfield secured an Irish Cup semi-final berth by beating nine-man Cliftonville 3-0 at Solitude.

Gaynor latched onto a long ball and poked the ball past Conor Devlin for the opener in the 56th minute.

Waterworth shrugged off a defender and slid a low shot into the bottom corner for the second with 14 minutes left.

Gaynor's penalty after Devlin fouled Paul Smyth made it 3-0, then Devlin and Caoimhin Bonner were sent-off late on.

Both players received two yellow cards, the Reds goalkeeper being dismissed by referee Andrew Davey for apparent dissent after initially kicking the ball towards the Linfield players after Gaynor's successful spot-kick in injury-time.

Bonner was given his marching orders after a foul on Guy Bates soon after.

The Reds' best chances fell to David McDaid, but he was denied by Gareth Deane in the early stages and skewed a curling left-foot effort wide of the post in the second half.

Goalscoring opportunities were at a premium in the opening period, but Waterworth went close for the visitors when his right-foot drive was pushed over by Devlin.

After the interval, with the Blues already two goals up, defender Mark Stafford saw his header cannon off the bar.

Linfield will face Lurgan Celtic in the semi-finals at Windsor Park on Friday night, 1 April.

Linfield manager David Healy: "The first-half was a bit scrappy but I thought we merited the win by virtue of our second-half performance.

"We kept putting into practice what we had talked about in training and took our goals well. We will give Lurgan Celtic every respect in the semi-finals, we'll have them watched and prepare in a professional manner."