WREXHAM are set to appoint a new manager by the end of the week.

Dean Keates left to take over as Walsall manager in March and his assistant, Andy Davies, took charge until the end of the season, but Wrexham fell short in their bid to reach the play-offs.

The recruitment process to appoint a new manager for the 2018-19 season has been on-going and Craig Harrison, who worked with Reds’ coach Carl Darlington at The New Saints, former Welsh international Craig Bellamy and current Solihull Moors manager Mark Yates are among the names linked with The Racecourse hotseat, and director Spencer Harris says Wrexham are closing in on their man.

“We are in an advanced stage of the process now in our search for a new manager and I would expect to have somebody in place by the end of the week, “ said Harris. “The process was always going to be seeing who applies, see who we might be in interested in who hasn’t applied, and then talk to people.

“Once we have identified the right person through that process, then come to an agreement on contract and other things, and get the right person in place to take us forward.”

Wrexham only won once in the final nine games following the departure of Keates, taking seven points from a possible 27.

Although there has been an improvement from the 2016-17 campaign when Wrexham finished 13th, Davies admits it will be classed as failure after failing to reach the play-offs.

“If you look over the season and last season, have strides been made?” Yes, certainly,” said Davies. “Have we failed in the objective this season? Yes we have. The objective was to get into the play-offs at least and we haven’t done that.”

On Keates leaving to take charge of homet-own club Walsall, Davies added: “People move on in football and everyone deals with that but I wouldn’t say it was a massive effect.

“We have let ourselves down massively as a group of players and staff from the position we were in.”