BREAKING: Carluke Rovers' new manager applicants have longer to apply for the job

Rovers’ committee met on Monday night and decided that it would make sense to have this season’s league campaign finished – it is ending three months earlier than usual – before naming Mark Weir’s permanent successor.

Carluke secretary Steven Kane said: “We have had at least a dozen applications of good quality.

"Most of the ones that are in are doing jobs.

"There are a couple of managers at other junior clubs, there are assistants at junior clubs.

"But in the last month it’s been clear there are maybe a few other candidates who are reluctant to apply simply because they are in a current job, they’re happy where they are and they don’t want to upset their team.

"So we’re probably looking to extend the deadline until the end of February.

"That still gives us plenty of time to get people on board. We want to make sure we get it right so we want to cast our net as wide as possible.”

Kane said he was grateful to interim Rovers boss Kenny Neill – formerly Weir’s assistant – for agreeing to take the team going forward.

Neill’s first game will be a home Conference B game against Renfrew this Saturday with kick-off at 1.30pm.

Rovers had no competitive game last weekend but lost 2-1 in a bounce game at Dalkeith, with all 18 of their players getting on the pitch at some point and Dylan Duddy scoring Rovers’ goal with a penalty.

“The goals were all in the last five minutes,” Neill said.

"We made two individual errors and then Dylan scored the penalty to make it 2-1 with a minute to go.

"It didn’t help with the flow of the game when we were making mass substitutions but it was important to get players on the park."