United place midfielder Downey on transfer list

The former Cliftonville and Linfield playmaker has been made available to other clubs by manager Glenn Ferguson.

It’s understood that Premiership sides Lisburn Distillery and Donegal Celtic have expressed an interest, along with Carrick Rangers, who were relegated from the top flight last season.

Downey was a regular in the United team after Ferguson took over in January but after suffering an injury, he was unable to regain his place as the Sky Blues finished the campaign unbeaten in their last 12 games.

“There were some media reports that Conor had been released but that is not the case - Conor is on the transfer list and is available to other teams,” Ferguson told Times Sport.

“One of the factors is that he is only able to train once a week - that was an arrangement he had in place with the previous manager (Roy Walker) but it’s not something that fits in with what we’re trying to do.

“We also have quite a number of midfielders and Conor is down the pecking order in that position,” added Ferguson, who hopes to announce a new reserve team manager this week, following Clifford Adams’ promotion to the first team as performance analyst (see story, page 49).