JUST a couple of months into his tenure as a Director of Kidderminster Harriers, your official website caught up with Keith Chandler to see how he's settled in Aggborough's Boardroom.

Chandler took his seat on the Board towards the end of last season and watched on as a nail-biting season ended narrowly in despair as the club lost out on the play-offs on the final day of the campaign.

Since then, many members of that squad are set to move on with a new team to be assembled by boss Mark Yates during this summer.

Speaking to harriers.co.uk, Chandler admitted that he can understand some supporters' disappointment at bidding farewell to some popular faces.

He agrees that the push for the play-offs was a gamble worth taking - but a gamble none the less, with the club unable to sustain the end-of-season wage budget throughout the empty summer months.

"I can see and it's easy to understand the logic that when you miss out on the play-offs by the last kick of the last game of the season, you want to see that squad retained and you want to add a few more faces to it and go for it again," he said.

"The cruel aspect of that is that you have got a wage bill to pay for May, June and July and it's very difficult to make provision for that.

"If that money had been kept last season then people would've been asking why we weren't going for it and signing the likes of Chris McPhee which would help us get into those positions.

"So it is difficult and being in the Boardroom, I now see that directly, face to face.

"There are people who say the club is not ambitious - I think the club is ambitious but it has to take on a level of prudence with that ambition. You can be as ambitious as your funding allows you to be and obviously it's in the club's best interest to maximise that and that was clearly demonstrated last season when that extra revenue from the FA Cup and Trophy was put into the playing budget to give us that additional push."

With administration now almost part-and-parcel of modern day football, at least at this level, Chandler hits out at those clubs who have and who are throwing money left right and centre with a view to chasing dreams.

But consequences for falling short when you work outside your means are all too severe - and the local businessman is very glad that such danger is away from Aggborough.

He adds: "At the end of the day I don't want to see this club do what Weymouth and Halifax and other clubs have done and throw caution to the wind and have no regard to financial consequences - because those consequences are that you aren't in the Blue Square Premier and you're somewhere else.

"That's ridiculous, to try and go there, so the club just has to try and do and achieve as much as it can at a level at which it can sustain itself.

"It does amaze me that people expect clubs to, and indeed some clubs do, splash cash that they haven't got and ultimately - I do think that in the near future we will see more clubs in trouble and even disappear with ten point deductions here and there."

With the summer still in its infancy, player 'news' is somewhat thin on the ground at Aggborough as those offered contracts mull over their deals and boss Yates and Neil Howarth sift through the many, many free agents with a view to bringing in fresh blood.

It's a process that Chandler for one is looking forward to seeing completed, given Yates' record at unearthing talent.

"Mark has the ability to do that and a track record that proves it," he states.

"I think, overall, his judgement of player has been exceptional and it's delivered us season on season of improvement - I don't think you can ask for more than that.

"You look at the likes of Burton Albion who'd been around the play-offs for a couple of years before getting their promotion. If we can challenge again next year maybe we can go that little bit further."

Keith ended by sending out a plea to those sitting on the fence with a view to buying or renewing Season Tickets on the back of a campaign in which Harriers boasted one of the best home records in the country.

"I think the management team demonstrated last year on a limited budget initially that they had what it takes to assemble a squad that was around the play-offs by Christmas," he went on to say.

"I think that should count for quite a lot in people's thinking. I have bought a Season Ticket again this year and I know other Directors have as well so there is commitment and a bond between the Board and the fans - we're putting our money where our mouth is and we'd ask them to follow us and do the same."