Glenavon owner Cathal Morrison insists he’s determined to keep “best young manager in the league by a mile” Michael O’Connor in charge for the club’s rebuild as they look to plot a path back to the Premiership after relegation was confirmed on Saturday.

O’Connor was appointed to his maiden senior managerial position in October, arriving at Mourneview Park after Glenavon had endured the worst start to a top-flight campaign by any team in 60 years, losing their opening 11 matches.

The former Northern Ireland international won eight of his 22 games prior to this month’s split to breathe new life into their survival mission.

Glenavon briefly moved above Crusaders in the race to avoid an automatic drop, but their fate was ultimately sealed following a weekend loss to the North Belfast club.

placeholder image — Glenavon manager Michael O'Connor. (Photo by David Maginnis/Pacemaker Press)

It means Glenavon will be plying their trade in the Championship for the first time since 2005 and a number of big calls will be made in the coming weeks as they prepare for second-tier life.

A major decision will centre around the man leading them forward, and Morrison, who officially took over as part of Football International Limited last month, is clear that O’Connor is the perfect person for the job.

"There’s a massive appetite to keep that management team at the club,” Morrison told the News Letter. “There will be discussions around that.

"The club has to be sustainable so there will have to be certain budget restraints in certain areas, but the appetite from the board is to certainly try and keep the management team.

"The discussions have to be had with the board and management team...the plan is to have those discussions and hopefully get something that’s mutually acceptable for an excellent management team.

"Mick is the best young manager in the league by a mile and we would love to have him stay.

"He’s a progressive young manager and his man-management skills are second to none. The way he speaks to people is the way I would want to be spoken to if I was a player.

"He has the backing of every player, he has the backing of the fans, and to see the change he has made to the club is amazing.

"Mick lives, sleeps and breathes football. I seen a comment where he said he had failed, I can tell you now Mick didn’t fail – Mick succeeded.

"We haven’t stayed in the league, but Mick succeeded in every way, and if he had been there at the start of the season, things would have been a lot different.”

Paddy McLaughlin started the current campaign as Glenavon manager, conducting a summer squad rebuild with 14 new players arriving and a similar number departing.

Many were unable to produce their best for the Co Armagh club, and while Morrison believes things would have been different if O’Connor was in charge throughout the whole season, he isn’t interested in finger-pointing.

"We can’t just go down the road of blaming the previous manager, there’s a number of reasons why it just didn’t work out for Paddy,” he added. "Could a decision have been made sooner regarding Paddy’s future? Possibly. Could he have stayed on and turned it around? Possibly.

"Nobody knows, but one thing we can say for certain is Mick, Andy (Doyle) and Fergy (Mark Ferguson) have done an amazing job since coming in and if they had the full season we would have been nowhere near the bottom of the table.”