Gary Bowyer and Terry McPhillips to remain in charge of Blackburn for rest of January

Duo stepped in following sacking of Henning Berg

Blackburn have announced caretaker management duo Gary Bowyer and Terry McPhillips will remain in charge of first-team affairs until the end of January.

Reserve team manager Bowyer and youth boss McPhillips took up the reins when Henning Berg was sacked after 57 days and 10 games at the helm last week.

Under their guidance Blackburn recorded a 3-1 weekend win at Barnsley before despatching Nottingham Forest 3-0 on New Year's Day - the club's first back-to-back npower Championship victories since October.

A statement on Blackburn's official website, http://www.rovers.co.uk read: "This decision follows discussions between the owners, directors and global advisor (Shebby Singh).

"The club would like to take this opportunity to thank Gary, Terry and the rest of the staff for their sterling efforts over recent days which have helped produce two successive and important league victories.

"The club's search for a new permanent manager will continue in earnest."

Following Saturday's FA Cup third-round tie with Bristol City, Blackburn's January programme features Championship trips to Wolves and Brighton either side of hosting Charlton.

They lie 13th in the table, five points shy of the play-off places despite the departures of Berg and predecessor Steve Kean this season.

The news that Bowyer and McPhillips will remain for the foreseeable future follows an interview last night with Shebby Singh, who told BBC Radio Lancashire that Berg's successor would only be handed an initial deal until the summer.

"At this moment in time we are looking to offer a short-term contract, a six-month contract with specific targets," he said.

"Upon achieving those targets it would trigger off a longer-term contract.

"We are looking to reward success and not reward failure.

"You look for long-term stability but I think right now the situation is that everybody has got to be on a footing where we all want to pull together to achieve certain targets.

"There's no time to indulge in someone who thinks he can come in and have three years or four years on his contract and take his time about what we've set out to achieve."

After the odds shortened on former England Under-21 manager Peter Taylor making a surprise return to management at Ewood Park over the weekend, the man who worked above him with the full international side appeared to throw his hat into the ring this morning.

Sven-Goran Eriksson was quoted in the Lancashire Telegraph as hinting at an interest in the job but insisted no one from Rovers had contacted his representatives at this stage.

He said: "It is a very good club and a big club and they belong in the Premier League. It would be a job anyone would be interested in.

"Of course I would like to get back into football and I love English football, whether you are talking about the national job, Premier League football, Championship or even League One and Two."

PA