PHIL BROWN, the former Hull City and Derby County manager, is a short-priced favourite to become the next manager of Hartlepool United.

The ex-Pools defender has been out of work since being sacked by Preston after winning 1-0 at Victoria Park last November.

But it is understood he was a number of candidates are to be interviewed by Pools’ chairman Ken Hodcroft and was as short of 11-10 last night, after being available at 20-1 seven days ago.

Brown was a regular at right-back at Victoria Park from 1979 to 1985, making 249 appearances.

Former Newcastle midfielder Alan Thompson is also involved in the interview process to replace Neale Cooper, while the name of Rudi Voller, the ex-German international, was bizarrely put in the mix at odds at 16-1.

Micky Barron will remain in caretaker charge for tomorrow’s FA Cup trip to Chesterfield.

He was asked to take temporary charge for last weekend’s game at Brentford and admits he has enjoyed the chance to spend a full week on the training ground with his players.

Barron only had two days to prepare for the trip to London, but was pleased with the reaction of his players who took his ideas and game plan on board.

He was again non-committal yesterday on his own prospects of replacing Neale Cooper on a permanent basis.

“I’ll carry on until told otherwise and concentrate game by game and prepare for Chesterfield and then Tranmere and then see what happens after that,’’ he said.

“A lot of it is just being positive and trying for a result this weekend.

“As I said last the weekend, I’ve got a job which I’m happy to do that job and I’ll carry on doing that and preparing the team for the next match.’’ This is Barron’s second spell in caretaker command, following his stint last December when Mick Wadsworth left the club.

His aim is to lift confidence within the squad and restore some belief within his players.

“It’s been nice spending some time on the training pitch without worrying about a game,’’ he said.

“We did some good work on Monday and Tuesday and the players were off Wednesday before we concentrate on Saturday.

“We’ve worked on the system and style of play we want them to adapt to and we did that in the early part of the week with the younger players and those on the bench so that everyone has an idea of how we want them to play.

“We want them to have images in their head of where everyone will be on the pitch during a game.

“Lifting spirits is important and that last-minute goal last weekend left us all happy because we had a point. Firsthalf we played well and we need to carry that on.’’ He added: “The most important thing for me now is getting the team into the next round of the cup and moving up the league table.

“Whether it’s cup or league – we need wins and making sure performances are good, we like a good cup run, it’s good for everyone but we need to win games at every level, first-team, reserve and youth.’’ Pools yesterday signed Zak Boagey, an 18-year-old striker, from Middlesbrough. He has been on trial with his hometown club in recent weeks.

Barron said: “I’ve known Zak for a long time as a bright young talent at Middlesbrough and when we got the chance to bring him here and have a look, we grabbed it.

“But we’ve got to take our time with him, introduce him into first team training gradually and we’ll go from there.”

Adam Boyd, the former Pools striker, is on trial with Lincoln City. He left Northern League side Celtic Nation last month and Imps’ boss David Holdsworth has been impressed.

“There is no doubt he is blessed with tremendous ability,”

he said.

“He was a little bit rusty in terms of fitness because he has not played for a while and I understand that. But he is a nice guy and I’m more than happy for him to continue training with us.”