Colchester United chairman, Robbie Cowling, has admitted that he needs more time to make the important decision of who is going to become the next manager of the League One club.

And Cowling has not now ruled out the possibility of recruiting from outside the club.

Cowling had initially hoped to name a new boss, from within the club, in the lead-up to this Sunday’s FA Cup second round tie against Altrincham. But instead, the U’s supremo has chosen to install Wayne Brown as a caretaker manager, with John McGreal as his assistant. Both men have been coaching in the Academy environment with the under-18s and under-21s.

McGreal was the joint interim manager with Richard Hall for the U’s 5-1 defeat at Burton Albion last Saturday, with Brown in an assisting role.

But now Brown, a former club skipper who guided the U’s into the Championship in 2006, will be in temporary charge for what seems to be at least the next two matches.

Speaking to the ‘East Anglian Daily Times’ last night, Cowling said: “Like with bringing through our young players into the first team, so at the same time we’ve got make sure we bring through our young managers.

“But we’ve got to be really careful that we bring them through at the right time.

“We remain very serious at wanting to bring through our managers internally, but we’ve got to make sure that we do it in the right way. We mustn’t bring them in too soon.

“It’s a big decision to make and I have given myself more time.

“I have got to get the right blend for the (managerial) team, and I don’t feel that we’ve got that quite right at the moment.”

For more on this story, see today’s ‘East Anglian Daily Times’ newspaper