DAVID Keyte admits that his wife, Lorraine, has warmed to him taking over the top role at United.

“When I told my wife I was planning to become chairman, she wasn’t very happy,” said Keyte.

“I had played a lot of sport over the years. I was a bit selfish and I pushed it through.

“But Lorraine will look back at the first year and say it was absolutely the right thing for me to do.

“It’s been a brilliant project for me, personally. I am not sure I knew what being a chairman of a professional football club would be like.

“I just had a sense that things could be better at Hereford. There were 12 to 15 years of stagnation off the pitch and everything comes at a cost. I am trying to do things as prudently as possible.

“We had the FA Cup run and we had to sell our leading goal-scorer because, in the end, he did not want to stay at the club.

“I realise there won’t be a record transfer fee or a record-equalling cup run every season.”

Keyte said the lowest point in his first year at United was not giving the fans immediate success.

“The start we wanted didn’t happen and, at the end of the day, the most powerful room is the dressing room,” he said.

“If a few people down tools then it’s very tough.

When things are going wrong and you’re a player, you start to get anti the system and it’s a snowball effect and it can drag you down to the performances like we had at Burton, which was awful. We had to do something.

“We thought we had a good catch in Simon Davey, who settled in very well and, for whatever reason, it didn’t work out on the pitch.

“It wasn’t good enough and we had to do something about it in early October. We sacked Simon and Andy Fensome on a Monday afternoon and we had to keep the wheels moving. When we looked across the staff, Jamie Pitman was someone who we thought could do the job initially and he was delighted.

“Jamie’s shown that he’s not just the sponge man. I don’t think he could have done much better.”

Keyte says he’s enjoyed his first year at the helm.

“It’s been enjoyable and it’s been different.

“It’s sad that somebody has to get relegated at the end of the season.

“Lincoln City were a friendly group and I felt for them. Stockport were really nice people too.”

Keyte played a few matches for Hereford United Reserves in his youth.

“I have probably signed more autographs outside grounds than I ever did as a player,” he said.

“I used to be like Kenny Lunt but would score more goals than Kenny.”

Keyte said results on the pitch remained the most important thing.

“Whatever we’re doing off the field, it’s about results on the pitch. That can make or break people’s weekends. The work never stops - my phone went off at 12.30am the other night and it was Jamie Pitman with a text message.

“If you’re going to be successful in business, you won’t get there by working 9am to 5pm.”

Keyte added: “I am not a good loser - there’s no point in being involved in sport if you enjoy losing.”