Former Aston Villa coach Roy Aitken is set to move to Midlands rivals Birmingham City if Scotland manager Alex McLeish wins the Blues job.

McLeish appears to have now moved ahead of current assistant manager Eric Black in the race to replace Steve Bruce.

Black was in charge of Saturday's 2-0 home defeat by Portsmouth and held talks with the Blues board after the game when he was given no guarantee about whether he would be offered the job.

McLeish and Black were team-mates at Aberdeen but it is likely the latter would join Bruce at Wigan rather than remaining as second in command at Blues.

Instead, former Aston Villa number two Aitken would be expected to follow McLeish from the Scotland set up to Birmingham.