Newry City manager Gerry Flynn faces the biggest challenge of his managerial career so far, with his side’s fourth defeat in a row coming hot on the heels of the news that the club will listen to offers for all members of the current first team squad.

Flynn spoke candidly after he had to watch City lose out by two goals to nil to a hard-working Glenavon side at The Showgrounds.

Strikes in the first 15 minutes of the second half from Gary Liggett and Tony Grant did the damage for the Bordermen who fall further down the table and are in real danger of being sucked into a relegation dogfight from now until the end of the season.

It could have been so much different though as Chris Morgan was denied twice in the space of a minute – once by the crossbar and then by his former team-mate Robert Robinson, who had one of those days where he stopped everything in the Glenavon goal.

Flynn explained the rationale behind the decision to put all his players on the transfer list saying: “We will listen to offers for any of the players in the squad and that is all down to the financial climate at the moment. I have a job to do here and I have been asked to meet a budget and that means that I need to trim the wage bill.”

“In order to bring two or three new faces in, we need to ship out some players but they will only leave if the deal is right.

“Dundalk have shown an interest in signing Michael Collins, as have a number of other Irish League clubs so that is something that we are looking at, at the moment.”

Liggett put the visitors ahead on 51 minutes when he managed to squeeze a downward header under the bar after Trevor Molloy’s pinpoint cross from the left and then eight minutes later, Grant found himself in the right place at the right time to head past a stranded Paul Murphy and put the game beyond Newry’s reach.

Newry City: Murphy, Curran, Black, Donegan (King 63), E. Friars, Clarke, Garrett, Ferguson (Walsh 63), Morgan, S. Friars, Keegan. Subs – Havern, Gowdy, Doherty.

Glenavon: Robinson, Hudson, Magee, Haughey, McCann, Scates, Walsh, Harpur, Liggett, Grant, Molloy. Subs: Buchanan, Larmour, McDonagh, Murray, Carvill.