Distillery's second came when a long ball caught out McDonagh and former Glenavon striker Liggett took advantage to slide his shot under keeper Andrew Plummer.
Matthew began poorly with bogeys at the 1st and 3rd but steadied the ship with six successive pars before letting another shotslide away at the 10th to drop to one under par.
The 22-year-old made it safe in first-half injury-time when he did well to turn on the edge of the penalty area and slide a low shot past the despairing dive of goalkeeper Zeng Cheng.