KENNY BLACK admits to feeling as though he has just had his right hand hacked off.

Perhaps that is the reason he is so strangely reluctant to fill out a job application form for the manager's position at Motherwell.

The 50-year-old still bears a somewhat shellshocked look in the wake of Stuart McCall's decision on Sunday to leave that particular role vacant at Fir Park. Even though he will be in charge of the dug-out for tonight's SPFL Premiership visit of the league leaders Dundee United, there is little sign in his eyes or, indeed, words of a hunger or ambition to succeed his former colleague.

Motherwell are sifting through a list of applications containing more than 50 names including those of Billy McKinlay and the former Hearts manager Csaba Laszlo. Black has not decided whether he would like to be considered alongside them.

He knows what it is to be a manager. He spent three-and-a-half years in charge of Airdrie United, winning the Challenge Cup in 2008, before four successive play-off defeats and relegation to the old Second Division resulted in the sack in June 2010. He insists there were some parts of it that he enjoyed.

For all that, he refuses to say whether he wants - or maybe even doesn't want - a return to the frontline. Not even McCall, himself, was capable of getting an answer from him when attempting to test the water earlier in the week.

"Stuart asked me if I would consider the job and I told him it was just too much to digest at once," said Black. "I couldn't give him a decision because I thought, ultimately, we would be together whether that would involve still being here or leaving together.

"It is as if your right hand has been cut off. I want to deal with the game and maybe have the weekend to think it over. The club have had loads of applicants, which I fully understand. There will probably be a lot of prospective applicants in the stand. We might need to open a new stand for them.

"I just want to make sure we get a positive result and I will be guided by what the club want me to do after that. I had a spell as a manager at Airdrie and that was totally different from the circumstances I face here. I enjoyed my times in management, but it does get to you. I had three-and-a-half years in different divisions with Airdrie. I enjoyed it when we were winning, but we had those play-off defeats and that was hard to take."

Of course, Black has a contract that runs until the end of the season and admits he would be happy to continue as part of the coaching team should a new manager come in.

"It's rare a new manager comes to a club without his own backroom team," said Black. "We don't have a massive team at Motherwell, though, so I don't think we would be appointing a manager who would bring in five or six coaches. I will continue in whatever role I'm needed until told otherwise. If a new man comes in, I wouldn't have any problems working with."

As Black considers his own future, he is also taking time to reflect on the run of events that caused McCall to fall on his sword.

Five straight defeats have taken the club to second bottom in the table. Hamstrung by a lack of finance and damaged by summer after summer of seeing players leave, the good times most definitely appear to be over.

Black, however, gives the impression that he believes McCall took it all too personally.

"I saw the difference in Stuart when he came in on Monday," said Black. "He looked a completely different man - as if he'd had a huge weight taken from his shoulders. He's normally a very positive person, but you could see with his body language, at times, that the defeats were starting to hurt.

"He possibly took it too personally. He probably thought the bottom line was that we were losing games and took it to heart, thinking he was to blame. It's a shame. It's not nice to see someone go like that."

Iain Vigurs, the Motherwell midfielder, was certainly taken aback by McCall's resignation and has pointed out that the players must now take full responsibility as they endeavour to avoid relegation.

"He has having trouble at home and his sleep was affected and you can't really have that," said Vigurs. "I think everyone is responsible for results and what's happened. I don't think it's down to any single person.

"We have been unfortunate with injuries, but you can only say that for so long. You lose managers all the time and you just need the players to get on with it. It is the players that are going to have to get us out of this."