MAIDSTONE United chairman Paul Bowden Brown will bankroll another promotion challenge, handing new manager Lloyd Hume a budget equal to the one the Stones squandered last season.

Bowden Brown’s decision to take another tilt at the Kent League title comes despite repeated threats to cut the wage bill and concentrate on funding a new stadium.

He said: “It’s a significant budget. It will be the same as last season’s, but I’ve agreed with Lloyd and his assistant Alan Walker that if we’re in a position to win something and certain things are needed, funds will be released.”

Maidstone have blown in the region of £100,000 on two failed promotion bids in the past two seasons, leading supporters to question the wisdom of investing in a squad when a new ground needs funding.

But Bowden Brown now argues: “Without promotion we’ll be dead. We’ve got to get up the pyramid if we’re to survive as a professional club.”

The chairman’s willingness to back his new management team reflects his confidence that the plans to build a new stadium are running smoothly.

He said: “The decision on the planning application is due in four weeks and by the 26th of this month any opposition to it should be known. We’re going to build the ground in stages. I’m not worried about the stadium and it’s unusual for a chairman to say that.”

Bowden Brown was also eager to quash suggestions that Mal Watkins had been eased out of the manager’s chair to allow Hume and Walker to take over: “I want to make it very clear that it was a personal decision by Mal to leave, I wanted him to stay.

“I’m very disappointed but he’s got to sort out his career and he didn’t believe he could give the job the committment it needed, so he’s done the honourable thing.”