Hughes wishes Haveron well in his new role

“What happened at Drumahoe was terrible and all our players should be having a seriously long, hard and critical look at themselves. But it wasn’t what dictated the timing of my departure,” insisted the former West Ham midfielder.

“Now was the right time because the new manager has a few weeks to work with the players and prepare for the next match against Dundela on October 12.

“Gary Haveron, whose official title is Head Coach, will have to get his back-up staff on board as well.

“The board have known of my intention for more than eight weeks,” said Hughes, who is the club’s chief executive and majority shareholder.

“I have a lot going on both within the football club and outside of football, and I don’t have the necessary time and energy to devote to management.

“The board had a meeting on Sunday and they interviewed a shortlist of candidates and Gary was chosen and has accepted the appointment as Head Coach.

“I don’t want to reveal the names of the others who were interviewed, but I should point out that I sat out of the process because I didn’t feel it appropriate for me, as chief executive, to be involved in that,” added Hughes.

“If truth be told, I didn’t really want to be manager on a permanent basis, I always probably regarded myself as a stop-gap measure.

“We want to promote from within and it really was only a question of when it would happen. Gary is a good appointment, a young manager in his first job with great enthusiasm and immense potential.

“He has integrated very well since he arrived at the club and has the respect of all at Taylor’s Avenue. He fully deserves this opportunity and I wish him well.

“We have got a very good board, a great group of people who work very hard. They have known of my intentions for quite a while, some of them maybe for much more than the eight weeks.

“We have suffered a few disappointments this season but we are still only a few points behind the leaders and there’s a mighty long way to go,” added the outgoing manager.