Cunningham takes over at Lisburn Distillery

Glenn Ferguson will be his assistant and the pair will remain in charge until the end of the season.

The announcement was made after the 2-0 home defeat by Donegal Celtic on Saturday.

Cunningham has had spells in charge of Limavady, Dungannon and Institute.

“It’s definitely a big challenge at the moment, the two of us together along with Willie McFaul will turn it around. It’s going to be interesting and there may be a few ups and downs along the way but we will work hard for what we have to try and achieve,” said John.

Glenn Ferguson is also looking forward to the challenge.

“It’s my first real step into any kind of managerial position and I will be supporting John as much as I can from now until the end of the season and hopefully beyond that. It will be a steep learning curve – it’s in at the deep end with Tommy gone, results haven’t been good but hopefully we will be able to turn things around and avoid that dreaded relegation battle and the finger-nail biting at the end of the season,” said Ferguson.