Aberdeen caretaker boss Paul Sheerin is not putting himself forward for taking the job on a permanent basis.

Sheerin will take charge of his first game on Saturday when Aberdeen face Dundee United.

The 46-year-old will be assisted by Barry Robson and Neil Simpson following the departure of Derek McInnes and his number two Tony Docherty.

The former Arbroath boss, who was brought to Pittodrie as under-20s coach in 2014, has no intention of throwing his hat in the ring.

“None whatsoever,” he said. “I’m not part of that process and as it stands I don’t intend to be in the near future. I am more than happy to help out the club.

“I know that will be results-based. If I win the game on Saturday, who knows? In terms of my mindset and the club’s mindset, it may alter that.

“But as it stands I’m more than happy just to help out and not out pressure on both the team or myself to win the game. I just want to relax going into the game and do all we can to pick up three points.”

Chairman Dave Cormack this week offered no set time frame for the the club’s recruitment process.

“Until the end of the season was spoken about but we also recognise there’s a process ongoing and that could change at any time,” Sheerin said. “So we just take it a game at a time and do as we are asked.”

The former Inverness and St Johnstone player feels the players are ready to take on United at Tannadice following their initial shock at the managerial change.

“Initially it was pretty subdued,” he said of the mood. “Everybody felt it, the gaffer and Doc having been a big part of most of our careers both as players and coaches over the past eight years.

“Slowly we have tried to drag them out of that a bit and hopefully come Saturday they will be ready to go and do all we can to get a result.

“There was probably a sense of shock that it happened so quickly but the nature of the beast is they need to dig in and show a bit of professional pride.

“We were probably fortunate we never had a game last weekend, the dust has been able to settle a little.

“We started afresh on Monday and now it’s just a case of concentrating on Saturday and I think we have been able to do that this week.”

Aberdeen could have Fraser Hornby back from injury this weekend but there will be no wholesale changes.

“I have worked with the manager and Doc now for seven years,” Sheerin said.

“We have been striving for the last five or six weeks to turn things round, to score goals, and we will continue trying to do that.

“Certainly we have known what we have had to work on and we have been working on that for the last few weeks. Nothing changes with that, we know exactly what we need to do.”