MacDonald has promised to let Villa owner Randy Lerner know by tomorrow if he wants to be considered for the job on a permanent basis.

Young believes he has the qualities to succeed but hopes Martin O'Neill's successor will be appointed sooner rather than later by Lerner.

The former England defender, hoping to rebuild his own career at the midlands club after scoring the winner in yesterday's Barclays Premier League clash with visiting Everton, said: "I hope now Kevin is given the chance if he wants to take it to be involved as manager.

"I think it is important now to get this sorted out as quickly as possible.

"God forbid if we had lost on Sunday. It would have been a long two weeks before we play again and there would have been a lot of doom and gloom around.

"Perhaps we have given ourselves a little bit of breathing space to sort the managerial situation out.

"But I think, as a club and as a squad, we need to know now if it is going to be Kev or someone else.

"Hopefully that will be sorted out in the next week or so."

Young believes former Liverpool midfielder MacDonald has the qualities for the job despite his limited managerial experience.

He said: "I've worked with Kevin and I know he knows football inside out and he knows tactics and formations and he can see what is going right and what is going wrong.

"I've played under a few people who don't know half of what Kevin does so footballing-wise he knows his stuff.

"It's whether he wants to take the stress and what becomes with being a first team manager."

Young rejected the chance to move to Liverpool earlier this month after being made available for transfer but now wants to play a prominent part for Villa.

He said: "I will feel more settled when the window shuts. There are still people ringing me, left right and centre to see if I'm available.

"I want to play for Villa. That's why I came here in the first place because I knew it was a big club and for me, along with Tottenham, it's the two biggest clubs I've been at."

Everton goalkeeper Tim Howard spelt out his frustration at another slow start to a campaign by David Moyes' side, who have picked up just one point from the opening three games.

He explained: "You look at our squad that has been assembled and think this is a really strong team, and yet there are times when we just don't look it.

"Last year when we finally hit our stride in January and February, we were knocking off the top teams - and we should be. That is the type of team we are.

"But for some reason it's just not falling for us and it's hard to put your finger on it.

"We've started slowly again and it's not going to get any easier but who knows why? It's still early on but we need points in the bag really."