STOURBRIDGE vice-chairman Andy Bullingham says the club plans to name a new boss next week.

The search to find Gary Hackett's successor is now well underway at the War Memorial Ground.

Hackett, along with his backroom team of Jon Ford, Mark Clifton, Steve Johnson and Richard Drewett, left the helm following a 2-1 play-off defeat at Alvechurch.

It saw the end of a memorable 16-year spell at Amblecote that included two promotions and five runs to and beyond the first round of the FA Cup.

Bullingham, along with chairman Andy Pountney, have now drawn up a shortlist of candidates and hope to complete their search in the coming days so that the new man has time to shape his squad for the 2019/20 Southern League Central season.

Bullingham said: "We've had plenty of applications and we've been very impressed with the quality of them.

"The quality has been tremendous and we've now been able to narrow them down to four or five people we want to talk to.

"The plan now is to start talking to them this week and hopefully being in a position to name our new manager early next week.

"We want to give whoever comes in the whole of June to do what they'd normally do and start calling around and getting the players in that they want.

"Since we came into the club we've not been through this before because we've always had Gary as our manager.

"He did a fantastic job for us and will be a hard act to follow but we're sensible people and will be patient.

"This is a new chapter for the club and also an exciting time."