The Raith Rovers directors will begin to formally interview candidates for their vacant manager position this week after whittling down the 130 applicants to “no more than half a dozen”.
The Kirkcaldy side parted company with former boss Grant Murray last month following a poor run of results and performances.
The search immediately began to find his successor and after being inundated with applications, the club have now settled on a short-list.
And Rovers chief executive Eric Drysdale admitted the club want the new man in place sooner rather than later to give him as much time as possible to prepare for next season.
He said: “We had 130 applications in total of which maybe just a dozen or so were from people with a sense of humour.
“The rest were from applicants with real football credentials.
“We have gone through a lot of CVs to find the right type of person we are looking for.
“It has been really difficult but we have whittled it down to no more than half a dozen.
“We will start formal interviews this week and then make a decision.
“The people we have short-listed are not all exactly the same but we know what we want and we are looking for the man who ticks as many boxes as possible.
“For instance, he will have to work within the club’s financial constraints. We are still waiting to see whether Rangers will be in the Championship next year which will have an impact on our budget.
“Unfortunately, we are not in the play-offs but that should help give us a head-start in planning for next season.
“We have made some progress already thanks to Maurice Malpas and Laurie Ellis but we don’t want someone to come in and be handed a fait accompli.
“So we will be looking to make the new manager appointment sooner rather than later.”