Cobh Ramblers will interview four applicants for their vacant manager's position after the dismissal by the club of Stuart Ashton earlier in the week.

Two of the applicants are English and two locally based but club secretary Daniel Cronin declined to name any them remarking that "we hope to make an appointment within the next two weeks but at the moment we can't say too much because we have yet to have discussions with any of the candidates."

Ashton's departure does not come as a complete surprise given that the club are currently third from last in the first division table but the Englishman may have felt that he had survived the worst given that his team had won three and drawn one of their last five outings.

Derry, meanwhile, have completed the sale of Peter Hutton to Portadown for £30,000. The midfielder's departure leaves the club with a gap in the centre of midfield and their problems will grow worse over the Christmas when Paul Heggarty and Liam Coyle start three and two-match bans respectively.

"We know we have to bring somebody in," says Felix Healy "and we're currently looking around for players but so far we haven't managed to sort anything out although we have talked to a few clubs about some of their people."