Craig Liddle has stepped into the breach to become Darlington's caretaker manager for a third time as the club begin their search for a new boss - but it will not be Martin Gray.

He last night ruled himself out of the vacant manager's job at The Northern Echo Arena, citing his business interests as taking priority.

The former player, who was assistant manager to Dave Penney and had two spells as caretaker boss at The Northern Echo Arena, was yesterday listed as the bookies' favourite to take over from Mark Cooper, who left Darlington on Monday evening.

But Gray, who runs his own successful academy, says the job is not for him at this time.

The 40-year-old launched the Martin Gray Football Academy in July 2010 after leaving Oldham Athletic and has subsequently overseen a rapid development of the company, taking up a head of football operations role at Greenfield Community College, in Newton Aycliffe, as well as launching several other projects.

He also has plans to increase his operation, and last night Gray told The Northern Echo: "I have too many business commitments on-going at present to be able to consider a full-time role in professional football.

"There are that many programmes ongoing within my Academy that it wouldn't be realistic to be able to hold down another job at the same time.

"I was surprised but flattered to see my name being linked with the job, but it's not for me, and I'd like to wish Raj Singh and whoever gets the job all the very best of luck."

Chairman Singh and managing director Graham Fordy plan to have a new man in position by the time Telford visit the Arena a week on Saturday.

The Northern Echo: Craig LiddleIn charge: Craig Liddle

In the meantime, Liddle will be in the dug-out when Quakers face Hinckley in the FA Cup at home on Saturday having also been caretaker in 2009 and 2010.

He took training yesterday before last night overseeing an FA Youth Cup win, 3-0 at Altrincham with Scott Harrison, Chris Dickinson and Tom Robson on the scoresheet.

With Liddle on first-team duty on Saturday, captain Ian Miller, currently injured, will take charge for the Durham Challenge Cup game at Stockton Town.

Liddle, the head of youth, has a reputation for producing a string of talented teenagers for the first-team such as Dan Burn, John McReady, Michael Smith and Curtis Main.

Quakers will consider what effect Liddle leaving the set-up would have on the youth section when assessing whether to include him in the running to replace Cooper.

Cooper and assistant manager Richard Dryden left after a poor run of form that leaves Darlington in the lower half of table, but although Gray has ruled himself out there have been no shortage of potential new managers keen to show their interest.

A number of well-known names have been quick to inform Singh of their availability.

Yesterday morning, ex-West Ham United and Liverpool defender Julian Dicks declared his interest, even talking on a national radio station about his desire for the job, ex-Quakers captain Kevan Smith is also keen, while The Northern Echo understands Ian Sampson will submit an application.

The former Sunderland defender has been looking to get back into management since being fired in March by Northampton Town where he also had a lengthy playing career.

He was in charge at Sixfields for 18 months during which time his most notable achievement was beating Liverpool at Anfield in the Carling Cup last season.

Other out-of-work managers thought to be keen on taking the Quakers reins are Ronnie Moore, Sammy McIlroy and Martin Foyle, formerly of Rotherham, Morecambe and York respectively while Ebbsfleet boss Liam Daish has contacted Singh to declare an interest.

Ex-Middlesbrough players Colin Cooper and Craig Hignett appear to be the front-runners while Middlesbrough coach Steve Agnew will be considered, but Penney is unlikely to interest Singh.

Meanwhile, Singh has admitted he has sought the opinions of the squad in recent weeks in an attempt to fathom out why results had been so poor.

There has been speculation that players were unhappy with their manager, but Singh pointed out that Cooper was aware of the talks.

"I've been speaking to players on a regular basis to try and get to the bottom of whats going wrong," said Singh, speaking on BBC Tees last night. "No players are going to come out and say something against the manager in public.

"So I have been speaking to them, but not behind Mark's back, there's been nothing underhand in that respect. I speak to the captain regularly and a few of the other players regularly, just trying to get our heads around what has gone wrong and, in a nutshell, nobody can give me a straight answer. Nobody can give me a straight answer, that's the top and bottom of it."