Hughie, who was well known in Manchester footballing circles, died in the early hours of Monday aged 80.
Bloods assistant manager Aeon Lattie said: "Myself, Dave Pace and a lot of other people will miss Hughie deeply. He was a very funny man - a real character. He could get away with blue murder.
"Hughie took me to Droylsden 20 years ago and talked more about my first game against Frickley than I've ever done. I don't know who'll tell those stories now that he's gone.
"Dave and I both went to see him in hospital and we'll both miss him a lot. Hughie was a very good friend to the two of us and to Droylsden Football Club."
*Meanwhile the Bloods are coping well in the Evo-stik NPL first division north. After two dreadful years and two consecutive relegations they are now in the thick of the promotion race.
Droylsden currently sit second in the table, three points behind Darlington, but Lattie believes they should be doing better. "To be fair, we should be clear. No one has really troubled us, not even Salford," he commented.
"Once again we've brought in lots of new players and we're not just asking them to win, we're asking them to win the way we play.
"We're down to what you could call a minimum squad now. Ciaran Kilheeney and Ben Deegan are scoring lots of goals but what we also have to do is stop conceding silly goals. But we're making progress. We just need a bit of tweaking.
"Dave and I are also happy that we're getting our matches in. Spennymoor have got five in hand which sounds good, but they've got to win them and it won't be long before the weather starts getting bad. They could find themselves with a pile-up."