Blackburn rule out appointing new manager until end of January
Press Association
The Guardian
Blackburn Rovers have announced that their caretaker management duo of Gary Bowyer and Terry McPhillips will remain in charge of first-team affairs until the end of the January transfer window.
Bowyer, the reserve-team manager, and McPhillips, the youth-team manager, took control when Henning Berg was sacked after 57 days and 10 games in the job.
Under their guidance, Blackburn recorded a 3-1 win at Barnsley before beating Nottingham Forest 3-0 on New Year's Day – the club's first back-to-back Championship victories since October.
A Blackburn statement read: "This decision follows discussions between the owners, directors and global adviser [Shebby Singh]. The club would like to take this opportunity to thank Gary, Terry and the rest of the staff for their sterling efforts over recent days which have helped produce two successive and important league victories.
"The club's search for a new permanent manager will continue in earnest."
Following Saturday's FA Cup third-round tie with Bristol City, Blackburn's January programme features Championship trips to Wolves and Brighton either side of hosting Charlton. They lie 13th, five points from the play-off places.
The news that Bowyer and McPhillips will remain for the foreseeable future follows an interview on Thursday night with Singh, who told BBC Radio Lancashire that Berg's successor would only be handed an initial deal until the summer.
"We are looking to offer a short-term contract, a six-month contract with specific targets," he said. "Upon achieving those targets it would trigger off a longer-term contract. We are looking to reward success and not reward failure.
"You look for long-term stability but I think right now the situation is that everybody has got to be on a footing where we all want to pull together to achieve certain targets.
"There's no time to indulge in someone who thinks he can come in and have three years or four years on his contract and take his time about what we've set out to achieve."