WHEN Colin Youngjohns was a young lad helping out around Aggborough, he could never have believed he would one day be a Football League chairman at the club he loves.

But the 56-year-old carpet contractor ended up exactly that after millionaire Lionel Newton quit the board last season.

Newton felt he could take Kidderminster Harriers no further and the onus is now on Youngjohns to make sure the club stays afloat.

But he insists Harriers are not just in Division Three to make up the numbers.

The Kidderminster man and Harriers historian has seen good and bad times at Hoo Road.

For Youngjohns, who describes his association with Harriers as "an affair of the heart", their Football League status will not be allowed to drift away.

Staff and players have been axed in a bid to cut losses at the troubled club.

Youngjohns admitted: "We have made some cost-cutting operations and from a profitability point of view we are in much better shape.

"But I don't want to give the impression everything is rosy because it isn't.

"Like a lot of football clubs at our level, we are financially stretched and the objective, of course, is not to break.

"But remember there are a lot of people in the game worse off than we are and I don't think they will be used to operating on a tight budget like we have been traditionally.

"I see ourselves as being in a similar position to when we joined the Confer-ence. We ended up being one of the biggest and most influential clubs in that league."

Harriers have had to cope with the collapse of the ITV Digital deal, though they wisely did not budget for it this season.

They also must meet deadlines to add at least 900 more seats to Aggborough before the next campaign.

The new stand would cost in the region of £1 million, although in the current financial climate it is possible the Football League may be prepared to relax its ground criteria.

He said: "We will miss the money of ITV Digital but there is no use us lamenting it because we won't get it.

"Kidderminster Harriers won't sink or swim on that, it will sink or swim on what happens in its surrounding district and the support of the people.

"It costs a lot of money to run a Football League club and if people support us we will continue to provide one.

"We are optimistic we can create a financial situation that will allow the stand project to proceed.

"The Football Foun-dation foot a lot of the bill but it's the shortfall we have to worry about which I expect to be between 10 and 20 per cent."

Youngjohns admits he sees the chairman's role as a community job, a bit like "being on the council", but is a Harriers fan first and foremost.

And he declared: "We are not setting out to just make up the numbers in Division Three this season.

"You have to try to compete and we have a side that didn't fall far short last season.

"This is still only our third season so we are still learning to be a Football League and full-time club.

"But we have to be prudent about it now as there is nobody to pick up the tab if it all goes wrong."