ALVECHURCH head to Kimberley Town this weekend anxious to give their season a boost with victory in the second qualifying round of the FA Vase.

And club chairman Peter Eacock is confident a new manager will be in place for Saturday's trip to Nottinghamshire.

Church were due to take on Midland Alliance leaders Malvern Town in a league match at Lye Meadow last night, a match sandwiched between interviews for the new manager.

Eacock said: "We expect to make an announcement at the end of the week. The response has been tremendous. We have had 14 applications and they have been of an excellent quality.

"Seven of them are being interviewed - some on Monday and some on Wednesday. We hope to introduce the new manager to the players at training on Thursday night and expect him to be in charge for the FA Vase game."

Director of football Colin Strong was in charge for Alvechurch's 1-1 draw at basement club Rocester on Saturday and Eacock admitted his side had been fortunate to escape with a share of the spoils.

"They should have had a penalty early on when Simon Redhead handled the ball and, in the end, we were lucky to hang on," the chairman added.

"Colin has done a good job but we need a manager in as soon as possible now to move us in the right direction. The person we are looking for should still be able to get us into the top five - Rushall lost 10 games last season and still got promoted.

"We are lacking in certain areas and the manager needs to have the ability to bring players in."

Redhead gave Church a half-time lead at Rocester only for the Staffordshire side to level from the spot 20 minutes into the second half, Craig Hancox firing home the penalty.