MacDonald saw Villa gain their second League win since he temporarily replaced Martin O'Neill against Everton today thanks to a goal from Luke Young.

Lerner came into the Villa dressing room after the match to pass on his congratulations to MacDonald who has filled the breach since O'Neill quit three weeks ago.

MacDonald said: "Mr Lerner came in the dressing room and said well done. He said to me 'take your time, enjoy the evening'.

"He put no pressure on me but I will probably speak to him tomorrow or Tuesday at the latest about whether I wish to be considered for the job.

"I've enjoyed being able to organise things but I still don't know if it is for me or not.

"I will now have the chance to collate everything that has happened in the past two weeks and I've got to believe I'm good enough myself. That is what I will think about."

Villa chief executive Paul Faulkner issued a statement on the new manager search on the club's website in which he referred to MacDonald's 15 years with the club, his "thorough knowledge of our first team, reserves and youth academy players" and his "strong and well-established working relationships with other key members of our coaching staff."

Faulkner said Villa had "thoroughly researched potential candidates" and listed "experience of managing in the Premier League and a strategy for building on existing strengths in our current squad" as two key criteria for the new permanent manager.

MacDonald does not have the former - but did briefly act as caretaker boss at Leicester in 1994 - though that may be offset by his in-depth knowledge of the club.

On the timescale of the appointment, Faulkner added: "We will now start the process of interviewing candidates we believe meet the key criteria required to manage Aston Villa with a view to making an appointment in the near future.

"Kevin MacDonald will continue as caretaker manager until that time."

MacDonald was full of praise for Villa's performance after they bounced back from the 6-0 hammering at Newcastle and then going out of Europe in midweek.

He said: "If ever supporters doubted the desire of the players to win again, then that performance will have put that belief back into them.

"We rode our luck a bit but had four or five decent chances and, if we had been more clinical, the score could have been 4-2 or 4-3 to us."

Everton boss David Moyes was left to rue his side's inability to convert their dominance into three points as they forced 18 corners against Villa's four.

He said: "We did enough to get something from the game, if not more than one point.

"We had dominance for most of the game but you have got to score.

"We have played well in other games as well and not been able to make it count.

"We were getting into the final third but then not creating well enough or making situations into better opportunities."

Moyes confirmed central-defender Phil Jagielka suffered a foot problem.

Moyes said: "He will need to get assessed. His foot is really badly swollen."