MOTHERWELL are expected to conclude their search for a new manager this afternoon and hope to have the successful candidate in place ahead of Saturday's pivotal SPFL Premiership relegation match against Ross County.

Kenny Black, in interim charge following Stuart McCall's resignation last month, will be interviewed today, the last man on the club's shortlist to be spoken to about the post.

Terry Butcher, who had a previous four-year stint as Motherwell manager, Mitchell van der Gaag, Rob Maaskant and Kenny Shiels are all also thought to be under consideration, as well as another unnamed candidate. On Black's watch, Motherwell have won once and lost three times to sit in tenth place in the table, just two points clear of St Mirren and County at the foot of the table.

Butcher is thought to be the leading candidate. The Englishman, sacked by Hibernian in June after relegating the club to the Championship via the play-offs, previously helped lead Motherwell through administration in 2002 and subsequently took them to the League Cup final three years later.

Prior to his disappointing and brief time in charge of Hibs, Butcher enjoyed greater success in charge of Inverness Caledonian Thistle, taking the Highland club back into the Premier League in 2010 and then up to fourth place in the top division three years later.

Dutchmen van der Gaag and Maaskant both played for Motherwell in the 1990s. Van der Gaag went on to manage Maritimo and Belenenses in Portugal before resigning from the latter a year ago after suffering a health scare.

Maskaant has coached in a number of countries including his native Netherlands, Poland, the United States and Belarus. Shiels, the former Kilmarnock and Morton manager, has been working as the head of coaching at the Forth Valley football academy since leaving the Greenock club at the end of last season.

Norberto Solano, previously linked with the post, also revealed he would still be interested, although it is not thought the Peruvian is a serious candidate to succeed McCall.

'I've been coaching in Peru, coaching in Canada, so now I'm just trying to come back into the UK, looking for a chance, looking for an opportunity,' he said. 'That's my plan. It's not easy. Scotland, Premier League, League One, League Two, it's still really tough for managers because it's not an easy job, but it's a challenge. My passion is football, always football. I cannot live without football.

'My main place is here. It would be nice if anything came from Scotland or England. I want to prove myself. I want to show what I can do as a manager.'

Around 60 people had applied for the vacancy. "We had 58 serious applications for the jobs - all weird and wonderful names, some really distinctive, some not so much - it was a really difficult process even just to whittle that down given how many good candidates and how many strong candidates, many with experience in very senior leagues in world football,' said general manager Alan Burrows.

"It's a really attractive proposition for any manager. It's a good club, it's a family, community-orientated club. It's a good environment for managers. There's a platform for a good manager to come in and do really well here, both for himself and for the football club."

Motherwell are also thought to be close to concluding a change of ownership. The Well Society have been trying for years to raise sufficient funds to bring about a fans-led takeover and now, with financial assistance from Les Hutchison, a Barbados-based Scots-born businessmen, it is thought they are now in a position to buy out the majority shareholding of John Boyle, the club's former chairman.