Gregg stays

Hewitt also confirmed that the majority of the 'Stute board are backing the manager and it's up to Gregg to 'prove to the remaining committee members that he's the man for the job.'

"It was a very, very hard decision and don't get me wrong it was touch and go there for a while to be honest," he said.

"But John came in and sold himself to the committee in our second meeting with him and now everyone has to get behind the club and John.

"John was let down by a whole lot of issues this year, he was let down in certain areas by the board, he was let down a by a good few players and they know who they are and he was let down by weather conditions, whenever we had no football for a number of weeks, so to blame one man is very, very unfair."

"At the end of the day everyone has their own ideas but like everything else at this club, the majority rules and he has got the majority vote of the board, but that could change through the season on results, it could change over pre-season on how he's preparing for that and on what signings he makes."

Hewitt also stated that he'll be travelling to Coleraine later tonight (Wednesday), to discuss a few ideas with Gregg and more importantly what the player's budget will be for next season's Championship assault.

"The rebuilding will be starting this evening whenever myself and a couple of board members will travel to Coleraine to chat with John, because over the last few nights he has had to come to Drumahoe and we would like to thank him for that, it also shows how much he is dedicated.

"A lot of people don't know he's travelling two hours a night, so we'll be going to Coleraine to put our ideas to him and I expect him to bounce a few ideas off us.

"As for a budget we haven't chatted too much about that over the last two nights; we were chatting to John last year in and around late October about cutting his budget because extra bills came up, e.g. tax and they were all coming looking for their money.

"To say that the players took a massive cut in wages, I have to clarify this to be honest because it has been a wee bit of a thorn in the board's side, the players and back room staff were asked to take a 10 per cent wage cut, they all did that and the club appreciated that, but at 10 per cent some boys lost 8 and some boys lost 10, it's not a fortune of money, but we appreciated their efforts for doing that."

Now that the decision has been made Hewitt is confident that Gregg is the man to bring Premiership football back to the Riverside Stadium.

"At the end of the day we hope he's the right man and that's why we made the decision tonight (Tuesday), he has the majority of the board backing him and it's up to him now to prove to the rest of the people on the board who were in two minds, that they were wrong."

The Chairman also confirmed that John's assistant Wesley Gregg has left the club.

"Wesley (Gregg) has decided to step down, so John will be looking for a new number two and I would like to thank Wes for all his efforts at the club and he'll be sadly missed."