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Ashford United co-owner Lloyd Hume discusses the reasons behind sacking Danny Kedwell as manager

Co-owner Lloyd Hume feels 90% of Ashford fans understand the decision to change the manager.

Danny Kedwell left Homelands last week after eight months in charge with the Nuts & Bolts seven points off the Isthmian South East play-offs.

Ashford United co-owner Lloyd Hume. Picture: Ian Scammell
Ashford United co-owner Lloyd Hume. Picture: Ian Scammell

Hume says the former Gillingham striker did an amazing job in building a new squad last summer.

But while there were no promotion demands, the owners feel the season has fallen short of expectations.

They accept injuries have played a part but decided to let Kedwell go.

Hume, who has taken over initially until the end of the season, said: “I think there’s going to be some support for Danny and I understand that because he’s a really nice guy.

“I’ve been friends with him for 30 years.

“Every conversation I’ve had with him, I’ve felt slightly sorry for him.

“But, ultimately, it’s his squad, his team, he spends the budget where he sees fit and he has to live and die by those decisions.

“I understand why supporters might like him but the facts of the matter are you’re only ever going to hear the negative comments.

Former Ashford United manager Danny Kedwell. Picture: Ian Scammell
Former Ashford United manager Danny Kedwell. Picture: Ian Scammell

“I think 90% of the supporters probably understand the decision.

“There’s always going to be disgruntled people.

“In football, you can win 3-0 and someone will moan and say you should have won 4-0.

“I’m used to that but I keep bouncing back to please see what we’re doing here, look at what we’re investing here, on and off the pitch.

“That’s going to continue, we will end up being a successful team on the pitch, which will bring more success off the pitch.

“We know we’ve had a bit of a disappointing season by our own admission and that’s why we’ve decided to make a change.

“I think we’d be criticised more if we did the same again next year and ended up in the same position.

“It would get thrown at me that if you knew that last year, why didn’t you make a decision then?

Gary Lockyer in the thick of things during Ashford's 1-0 defeat by Merstham. Picture: Ian Scammell
Gary Lockyer in the thick of things during Ashford's 1-0 defeat by Merstham. Picture: Ian Scammell

“The easy thing for me would have been to keep Danny because he was doing a tough job and he was doing OK but he wasn’t doing as well as the expectation he’d set and that’s the key thing.”

Kedwell told last week how he called a meeting to discuss plans for next season but instead lost his job.

He was shocked by the decision.

“We had an honest conversation with Danny and he strongly felt last Sunday that we weren’t going to make the play-offs and he was looking to rebuild for the following season,” said Hume, whose first game in charge ended in a 1-0 home defeat by Merstham last Saturday.

“As a club, we sat down, me, my business partner (Dave Warr) and my director of football (Alan Walker), and discussed how the season had gone, the expectations set by the management team and the expectations hadn’t met anywhere near where we actually were.

“On that basis we had to make a decision whether we followed the same path again next year, expecting different results, or we made a change.

Barry Fuller in action for Ashford against Merstham at Homelands. Picture: Ian Scammell
Barry Fuller in action for Ashford against Merstham at Homelands. Picture: Ian Scammell

“At that point we agreed we wanted to do things slightly differently.

“We want to recruit not just from above us and known players, we want to try and unearth some gems that are perhaps playing at our level or the level below who will run through brick walls for you.

“Danny did an amazing job at the start of the year bringing in a completely new squad.

“But I think from that point to when we let Danny go we’d used 59 players in our first team and we hadn’t got three fit subs on the bench for the last three games he was in charge and that’s disappointing.

“That’s not for the want of trying, it’s just the facts of where we were.”

Hume and Warr announced their plan to win two promotions in six seasons when they completed their takeover last summer.

It wasn’t essential to go up this season but the owners hadn’t seen the progress they were anticipating.

“There’s always an opportunity to gain promotion that’s unexpected,” said Hume.

Mikey Berry has left Ashford National League South football at Tonbridge. Picture: Ian Scammell.
Mikey Berry has left Ashford National League South football at Tonbridge. Picture: Ian Scammell.

“The expectation raised when we saw the quality of player we signed in pre-season.

“Danny’s had some really dire luck with injuries and I genuinely believe if we’d kept all our players fit - but that never happens in any squad, you have to have contingency - we would have been there or thereabouts in the play-offs this year.

“When you get in the playoffs, anyone can get promoted.

“I get it, it takes time, I want to be patient, I want the supporters to be patient, I want them to buy into the project.

“They can see all the work we’re doing off the pitch.

“I want to dispel the myth that we’re not spending money on the pitch because we are.

“In Danny’s last couple of weeks we signed a player he really wanted from Dorking on loan (Luke Moore) that was our highest-paid player in the squad.

“We backed him and we’ll continue to try and sign players.

“I’m hoping to bring two good players in this week that I’m speaking to and we’ll continue to develop on and off the pitch to get where we want to be and that is still two promotions in six years.

Midfielder James Dunne has left Ashford. Picture: Ian Scammell
Midfielder James Dunne has left Ashford. Picture: Ian Scammell

“It’s a really tall ask because there are 22 other clubs at our level that want the same thing.

“There are even more clubs at the next level up that want the same thing but we have to aspire to do that and we have to believe we can do it.”

Ashford visit Herne Bay this weekend in an earlier 1.30pm kick-off due to floodlight issues at Winch’s Field.

Teenage midfielder Mikey Berry has left Homelands for National League South club Tonbridge.

“I think that’s a good move for Mikey,” said Hume.

“He’ll get nurtured there, he’s at a strong club and what he’s now got to do is take his ability and make the step up into that level of football.

“He’s such a nice lad, he comes from a good family and he’s football crazy so when that opportunity came round, my attitude was you have to take that, you’d be mad not to.”

Fellow midfielder James Dunne has also left Homelands, the club have announced.

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