COWDENBEATH’S board of directors were at the beginning of the week considering 30 applications for the vacant manager’s position.

The board have been delighted with the quality of the applicants and are hopeful of carrying out interviews this midweek and having the new man in place for the match against Elgin City on Saturday.

Director David Allan said: “There has been a very healthy interest in the manager’s position and on Saturday the board was heartened by the level of quality.

“We hope to be able to get the wheels in motion by Monday or Tuesday and take it from there.”

John Ovenstone, who took the team on Saturday against Montrose had not really considered himself in the running for the post but did say after Saturday’s game if the board wanted to speak to him he would happy to talk to them.

The assistant to Billy Brown went for a three man attack against the Gable Endies and it did pose the visitors quite a lot of problems but he was very disappointed with the first two goals conceded.

He said: “We did really well at times against one of the better teams in the division but we shot ourselves in the foot with the two goals we conceded early in the game.

“The first came from a long throw which we did not cover properly and the second from a set piece. In this division these are bread and butter situations which we should be matching but we got caught out twice.

“The killer third goal, unlike the first two, came from a good move but really the problems came from losing these goals in the first 20 minutes. I know we have a young team but they really need to learn quickly to get results”

Mr Ovenstone will look after the team for Saturday against Elgin if asked and he is aware that despite Edinburgh City losing on Saturday and Clyde drawing the Blue Brazil need to win games to sort things out at the foot of the table.

He added: “We need to get results on the board ourselves to get out of this position and that has to be our aim this Saturday against Elgin.

“They are a tough team to play against but got a point up there earlier in the season and we have to look after ourselves.”

There were no injuries from Saturday so whether it is John Ovenstone or a new man at the helm there will be only ‘keeper Joe McGovern and Jamie Pyper absent.