CARETAKER chief Sam Collins is “very much” in the reckoning to become York City’s next permanent manager.

Collins and former Hartlepool team-mate Stuart Parnaby have been placed in temporary charge at Bootham Crescent, having been promoted from their respective roles as youth-team manager and strength and conditioning coach following the dismissal of Martin Gray.

After filling in on the same basis at Hartlepool three times in the past, 41-year-old Collins was taken on by the Minstermen over the summer, having left his role as professional development coach at League One outfit Bradford City.

As a defender, meanwhile, he made almost 600 senior appearances for Huddersfield, Bury, Port Vale, Hull, Swindon and Hartlepool.

Addressing the media for the first time since Gray’s Sunday morning dismissal, City sporting director Dave Penney confirmed that Collins would be in charge for the next two matches at Brackley on Saturday and against a visiting Blyth Spartans on bank holiday Monday.

If progress is shown, it is also anticipated that Collins and Parnaby will be given a longer period to outline their credentials, with Penney declaring: “Sam has stepped up to caretaker manager and Stuart has stepped up to be his assistant and we’ll run with that for the next few games.

“We’ve not got anybody in place to take over from Martin (Gray), as we didn’t plan for this to happen or want it to. We were hoping Martin would be here for a long time and Sam and Stuart will certainly be taking the team for the next two games and, hopefully, they do well and put us in a position where we have to make a decision in terms of offering them the job or not.

“I was in the same position at Doncaster where I was the caretaker for six matches and ended up being in the job for four-and-a-half years (winning two promotions in the process). We all have to start somewhere, and Sam has had tastes of it before with Hartlepool.

“We envisaged that he would be helping us implement the changes at youth-team level, but it’s happened now and he’s very much in the running for the job at this moment in time.”

Penney went on to suggest that, should results and performances be favourable, the board could wait until the club enter the FA Cup’s second qualifying round on September 22 before making the next full-time appointment.

“We’ve not discussed a timeframe but, off the top of my head, you’d probably look at the situation ten games into the season,” he explained. “I’ve been knocked off and got back on the football merry-go-round at that time of the year before and it’s when clubs look at situations and make assessments.

“But we’ll be looking at results and performances on an ongoing basis, because you can also perform well and lose, as well as play badly while fluking a win, so that will all be taken into consideration. Purely by coincidence, we have got two people at the club who have been in caretaker charge together before – at Hartlepool - so they’ve got that relationship already.

“Stuart has been doing a lot of work on pre-hab and re-hab since joining us and, speaking to the players, they have been pleased with his professionalism and manner around the club during the last couple of months.”

Ex-Doncaster, Darlington and Oldham boss Penney added that the club will still be closely monitoring outside declarations of interest while Collins auditions for the job, reasoning: “You don’t actively need to look for applicants as all the CVs quickly come in from agents, ex-players and managers.

“I’ve already printed some off and, if it comes to it, we will shortlist and interview.

“We’re not putting an advert out, but you are always mindful of what’s out there when people make it known that they are interested. Results will dictate whether we go down that route though.”