Hull expect to name new manager before weekend

The Hull City chairman, Adam Pearson, claims to have read some "pretty reasonable" speculation over the identity of the club's next manager but insists there are more candidates.

The former Crystal Palace, Charlton and QPR manager Iain Dowie appears to be the front-runner to succeed Phil Brown, who was sacked by the Premier League strugglers on Monday.

Pearson is hoping to have a new man in charge before Saturday's trip to relegation rivals Portsmouth and says the search is moving forward quickly. "We've got a pretty tight list and we're working through it," he said. "We're working through this exercise as quickly as we can, but obviously we want to explore every possibility.

"I think all the names mentioned are pretty reasonable. There are also a few who the press haven't picked up on yet that we're talking to. It's always nice to have a couple of secret ones tucked away"

Hull's caretaker manager, Brian Horton, Gary Megson and Terry Venables have also been named as candidates along with Mark Hughes and Paul Jewell. "We feel that we've got a quarter of the season to go with some winnable games within that," Pearson added.

"It's not a fixture list that's packed full of 'top four' games, it's one with games where we would expect to get some points. We feel that we're best served by making the change now. That will bring a fresh face in, some new impetus and some new focus to get those 14 or 15 points that we need."