Barnsley's search for their new head coach has been thrown wide open after their top choice Paul Hurst moved to Championship club Ipswich Town on Wednesday.

There is understood to have been contact between the Reds and the 43-year-old Sheffield man's representatives, but he chose to move to the Tractor Boys from Shrewsbury Town who lost the League One play-off final to Rotherham United at Wembley on Sunday.

Barnsley were hopeful of making an appointment this week but that now looks unlikely and the search is expected to continue well into June with the players due back in training for the final week of this month.

Hurst was the second of the Oakwell club's original shortlist to take another job after their former centre-back Darren Moore's position as West Bromwich Albion boss was made permanent several weeks earlier.

The Reds were always aware that Hurst would have other admirers, and had a list of other candidates which they are now working through with the interview process ongoing. Wycombe Wanderers manager Gareth Ainsworth and Blackpool boss Gary Bowyer are understood to be two of the remaining candidates, although others have also been interviewed.

Former Barnsley midfielder Grant McCann was 8/1 odds on favourite with some bookmakers this week. The Chronicle contacted McCann and he declined to comment but other sources have confirmed there has been contact between him and the club. The 38-year-old former Northern Ireland international played 44 matches for the Reds between 2006 and 2008.

He later finished his career at Peterborough United where he was made assistant manager then took the top job in April 2016. He was in charge of 104 matches, winning 41, guiding them to 11th in League One in his only full season then he had them in the play-off places on Boxing Day last year. But he won just one of his last eight league matches and was sacked in February this year with the Posh tenth.

It has been almost a month since the Reds sacked former head coach Jose Morais at Derby County's Pride Park stadium following a 4-1 final day loss which saw them slip into the Championship relegation zone.

Before they appointed Jose Morais in February, after Paul Heckingbottom went to Leeds United, Barnsley attempted to talk to Ainsworth but they were rebuffed by Wycombe. The 45-year-old is one of the longest-serving managers in English football and capped his almost six-year spell by claiming the third automatic promotion place in League Two in the season which has just finished.

If he were to move to Oakwell, Ainsworth would inherit one of the youngest squads in the EFL which would be very different to his current Wycombe team as eight of his most common 11 in 2017/18 were aged over 30. However, he has played a role in the early career of two of Barnsley's recent stars, Alfie Mawson and Josh Scowen who both impressed at Adams Park, while current Reds right-back Jason McCarthy was Wanderers Player of the Year under him in 2015/16.

The long-haired former striker from Blackburn, who played in the Premier League for Wimbledon, finished his playing career with the Chairboys and took over as manager in September 2012. The following season, they stayed in the Football League on goal difference on the final day, then a year later lost the play-off final to Southend on penalties after conceding a 120th-minute equaliser. Two mid-table finishes followed before this year's promotion.

Ainsworth, whose only previous managerial experience was two spells as Queens Park Rangers caretaker, has taken charge of 311 Wycombe games, winning 130 and losing 103.

Meanwhile, Bowyer is understood to be out of the country and due to return within the next week. The 46-year-old has been a name discussed at Oakwell almost ever since Morais left. After retiring from playing in his mid-20s, he spent more than a decade coaching in the academies of Derby County and Blackburn Rovers who eventually appointed him as manager in March 2013 then sacked him after two and a half years in charge of the Championship club.

He took over at Blackpool two years ago and turned around a club who had suffered two successive relegations, leading them to promotion from League Two with a play-off final victory a year ago over Exeter City at Wembley in which current Red Brad Potts netted for the Tangerines. Blackpool then finished 12th in League One in the season which has just finished.

Simon Grayson, who has four promotions out of League One but endured difficult spells with Sunderland and Bradford City in 2017/18, is known to have applied for the Barnsley job. Former Leeds midfielder David Hopkin has also been linked to the Oakwell job after leaving Scottish club Livingston.