DORCHESTER Town will whittle their list of applicants for the vacant manager job down to a shortlist of five, chairman Scott Symes has revealed.

Echosport can reveal, at the time of writing, Dorchester have had at least 16 serious applicants for the post.

Interviews are expected to take place “over the next few days”, while two candidates will be interviewed after the weekend.

This means that interim management duo Brian Churchill and Craig Robinson will likely remain in charge for Saturday’s trip to Chesham United.

Symes said: “We went through those that have applied on Monday night, Tuesday.

“We’ve invited some people in for interview. There are still a couple of people we need to speak to based on work commitments and football.

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“We may not get a chance to do that until after the weekend, actually get face-to-face with them.

“We know what we’re looking for, we’ve whittled down what we’ve received and we’ll start the process to try and find our next manager.

“We’re not going to rush it. We want to speak to everyone who’s interested.

“We’ve got certain parameters that we think are really important for the next manager.

“We’ll take our time to find that person.”

Asked if he had been impressed by the calibre of applicants, Symes added: “Yes, I have.

“There are a lot of people in and around football. There are certain things that we want from the manager and that may rule out certain applicants.

“It’s not a 100 per cent criteria. If they do turn out to be the right person, we’d still explore it.

“Wouldn’t you love a highly successful Southern League manager who’s done everything in the game and proven?

“Then again, we’ve got to understand that if they are, they’ll be somewhere. They’ll be employed at a club and be very highly regarded to whatever club they are employed.

“We’ve got to think about what it is we want and that person has to show something within the interview process.

“It’s a challenging process to find the right person but you’d want some experience at this level and of winning.

“It’s not just about the football side. What does that person do outside of football?

“From my perspective, that can be as important as what they do in football in terms of man management, team management, organisation and all of those things that they can naturally bring in.”