Ashford United co-owner Lloyd Hume succeeds Danny Kedwell as manager of the Isthmian South East club

Ashford United co-owner Lloyd Hume has taken over as manager following the departure of Danny Kedwell.

Hume will be in charge initially until the end of the season and has appointed Darren Hare as his assistant.

Management is nothing new to the former defender, who led Maidstone to back-to-back Kent League and Isthmian Division 1 South titles in 2006 and 2007.

He’s also had spells in charge at Fisher and Rochester and was assistant manager at Tonbridge under Alan Walker, who is director of football at Ashford these days.

Kedwell left Ashford on Monday with the club 10th in Isthmian South East, seven points off the play-offs, following a 3-1 defeat at Sevenoaks.

Hume, who holds a UEFA A Licence, revealed he would be taking charge in an interview with in-house podcast That Nuts & Bolts Thing.

“Well, because we don’t want to change too much, I’m going to take the reins initially,” said Hume, who completed his takeover of Ashford with business partner Dave Warr last summer.

“And when I say initially, that will be certainly till the end of this season with a plan going into the following season where we want to be the year after.

“I say this about everyone, every one of the businesses I’ve ever been involved in, I’ve never met a manager, a salesperson, a footballer, that comes in and says, ‘I’m not very good, I’m not very enthusiastic, I’ll turn up late, I won’t always be at training, I won’t do this and I won’t do that’.

“They only ever promise you the good things.

“So what I don’t want to do is bring in another manager that we’re not 100% sure is capable of winning these football leagues.

“I know a lot of the Ashford people won’t know me as a manager because I’ve been out of the game for some time in a management capacity.