DEADLINE day is approaching for Devizes Town as they look to appoint a manager within the next week.

Five people have applied to take up the hot seat vacated by Mark Godley after he left the club last month citing financial constraints as the reason.

Chairman Phil Rossiter set a deadline of tomorrow for all applications to be received and told the Gazette he hoped to be able to unveil the new manager soon.

It is known that out of the applicants three of them are currently with clubs, one is out of football and another is looking for promotion within the club.

Ex-Westbury and Warminster boss Derek Graham confirmed he had applied for the position after he was made surplus to requirements when Kelvin Highmore was appointed Melksham Town boss last week.

Graham, who was assistant manager to Lee Burns, who in turn retired to spend more time with his family last month, said he was definitely interested in the Nursteed Road position.

"Devizes are a team I have always had a good association with. There's a lot of friends at the club and it would be a club I would like to work for," he said.

"I have always got on well with the club professionally and personally.

"There are a lot of good players at the club and I have even tried to sign a few of them at different times."

Godley decided to leave Devizes after Rossiter and the committee decided to implement performance-related pay for the coming season which means the manager will only receive the full £300 weekly budget if the team win.

Godley was not happy with the new directive and handed in his resignation.

But Graham said the budget situation did not bother him.

"Unfortunately I have only ever had a small budget and what people say is a small budget can be quite handy.

"When I was at Warminster I did not have an extortionate budget and neither did I at Westbury so it is not something that is new to me.

"It does mean you have to work harder because you have to get players cheaper and then keep the loyal players and Devizes seem to have a lot of those.

"The fact they are still in the Premier Division is absolutely brilliant. They did tremendously well at the end of the season and the two managers (Godley and assistant John Freegard) deserve a lot of credit.

"Being a manager is a difficult job and you don't realise until you do it.

"Everyone thinks they are a manager until you have had a low budget to work off and you find out how difficult it is.

"But I want the Devizes job. If I don't get the Devizes job then I want something else.

"I want to stay in football and not be doing jobs around the house on Saturday's at 3pm."

Rossiter refused to reveal any applicants' names but said he was pleased by the quality of those interested in the position.

"The job is completely open at the moment because they are all very good candidates.

"It is very important to get this decision right as ideally we would like a manager who will be with us for a long time.

"Whoever is involved we want to work alongside us and our plans."

Devizes' Football Committee will be interviewing the candidates this week and a decision will be made soon after.