Neil Cooper and Neil Simpson have been placed in temporary charge of the first team at Aberdeen following the sacking of Mark McGhee. McGhee, along with assistants Colin Meldrum and Scott Leitch, left Pittodrie on Wednesday after a sixth straight league defeat at Kilmarnock on Saturday left the Dons joint bottom of the Clydesdale Bank Premier League.

Cooper and Simpson will be supported in their role by club captain Paul Hartley.

Aberdeen director of football Willie Miller told RedTV on Wednesday: "I've spoken to Neil Cooper and Neil Simpson. Neil, with Simmy assisting him, will take the first team.

"They've obviously got Paul Hartley there as a senior player in the dressing room and team captain and he'll help in the communication side.

"The two Neils are very committed players in the past and very committed members of the staff and just want to do the best for the club.

"I think that's the most important thing at this moment in time - we want to try to galvanise everybody to be working for the benefit of the club and going in the right direction.

"That's what we put in place in the short term."

Miller is part of a sub-committee featuring chairman Stewart Milne and chief executive Duncan Fraser who will draw up a shortlist of managerial candidates to present to the board.

Miller added: "We don't want to put a time on it, but we'd like to get it done as soon as possible.

"We have to go through the procedure of building up a shortlist of potential candidates and we've set up a little sub-committee to do that.

"We're looking for applicants, building up a list of potential candidates ourselves and we'll take that process through as quickly as we possibly can."