KNOWING they were not first choice for the vacant manager's job at Cappieow, James Grady and Allan McManus nevetheless put on a brave face as they took over the reins once more as caretakers.

With the the collapse of the Morton attempt to bring Allan Moore to Cappielow from Stirling, Grady and McManus are once again in charge of the team as they prepare for a tough match at Inverness tomorrow.

Grady said: "It's been unsettling, for the players and Allan and me. The guys read the papers. But we've told them to try and focus on the Inverness game and that what will happen will happen regardless.

"We will try and take as much of the pressure as we can away from the players, but they'll still think about it and talk about it.

"It obviously needs to be sorted out quickly for everyone's benefit, players and ourselves." Chairman Douglas Rae was on a business trip yesterday and Grady continued: "We'll be speaking to him, maybe on Saturday morning." Meanwhile Grady and McManus have to struggle on with a squad down to 13 bodies after seven players have been ruled out for several weeks with injuries and Iain Russell remains on loan.

"It's hard going for a job when you have only had a squad of 13 or 14 players to work with," said Grady who recognised that the fans and the press won't take that into account.

"They just see the last three defeats," he said philosophically. "It's an almost no-win situation." Nevertheless, that is the situation the pair are in and they know there is little they can do about it.

Only if they are placed in full charge can they begin to try and address the immediate problems with regard to possible loan deals as cover for the growing injury list.

Meanwhile Grady said: "We have had Inverness watched and we know it will be a difficult game.

"'We have got to try and start well and hopefully the crowd will turn and they'll get a bit nervy.

"The situation at the moment isn't ideal, but we will definitely go there and try to win the game.

"There are guys in the team now because of injury who believe they should be there anyway. They now have the chance to prove it." And, as a by-product, that would do no harm to Grady and McManus's own chances of getting a second bite at the cherry.