There’s a buzz around Lordswood Football Club as their newly-installed bosses attempt to take them to another level.

Chairman Ray Broad and vice-chair Gary Peck both went to school in Walderslade and played for Lordswood - but never planned to take charge of the club. Broad was looking to take on the reserve team and Peck was helping out by supplying some scaffold tubes for the pitch perimeter.

With former Lords manager and Gillingham player Jason Lillis in as director of football and Matt Barman taking over as manager last season, the first steps of a new era were in place.

Broad, who runs a logistics business and property development company, was enticed onto the board by Lillis and he said: “I asked Gary if he had any tubing as he runs a scaffold company.

“He came over with the tubing and we got talking. Six pints later he agreed to come onboard as vice-chairman!

“The people here before just wanted some fresh ideas to take the club forward. They had done a lot of work to keep it going.”

For Peck, he said: “It’s a case of we were either in or out. Once we’re in, we’re in!”

What they took on was a club that needed major TLC and it’s been hands-on from the new hierarchy.

Prior to inviting the media in to see their work so far, Peck had asked his mate over to supply some bricks that afternoon. He came with some mortar and got to work, with Broad taking on hod-carrying duties.

They’ve a deadline to hit as Gillingham will be bringing a team to Martyn Grove on Tuesday night for a friendly. Their first competitive game at home is on Saturday, August 5 when they host Egham Town in an FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round fixture.

Lordswood have moved all of their other home commitments so they can have time to prepare the ground and they’ve managed to avoid playing on the opening weekend of the Southern Counties East Premier Division season, a week before the FA Cup match.

The pitch has undergone a makeover, with soil, seed and lots of work from the groundsman Andy Presland and his team.

Lordswood know they can’t compete financially at the level, with the likes of Faversham Town spending big, but manager Barman came in last season with plenty of experience in working with youth at former club Whitstable Town. It’s the way forward for Lords.

The average age of their squad is 19, the oldest is 23 and the skipper Archie Risdon is just 18. A likeable lad who came from Whitstable Town, he knows it’s a level of football that can be the start of something big.

One of his good friends, Benedict Bioletti, spent a year in the under-23s at Colchester United after impressing at Faversham.

Risdon said: “I was handed the captaincy last season and it’s a big honour, leading the team out is really nice and I appreciate it. I like to think I am a leader on the pitch and quite loud.

“Next season is going to be a big challenge - a challenge for everyone - but it’s a great opportunity for us at a young age and we have to take it.”

Lillis has been the driver in putting the new off-field team together. The former Gills striker and ex-Lords boss knows what it takes to become a professional footballer. He is enthused by the project.

Lillis is head of academy education at Gillingham as well as director of football at Lordswood.

He said: “When I was brought back in there were a lot of changes that needed to be made.

“We’ve now got a chain of command and everyone is committed to driving the club forward.

“We want to give the boys here every chance to succeed and we are making it an enjoyable place to be, for the players, their family and those coming to watch.

“It’s not a five-minute job but we are ambitious. It’s baby steps, one step at a time.

“The club is in a really good place at the moment, six or seven weeks ago it might have been a different story. Now things can only get better.”

Lordswood benefit from the fact that the football club are part of a collection of clubs on the same site, with cricket, rugby and petanque enjoying their own ups and downs alongside.

Within the complex, the club have their own changing rooms and what will be a newly-furnished boardroom, including a rejigged tea bar that will face out onto the pitch.

The new seats are waiting to be installed in the main stand with help from the club’s “ultras”. A growing group of fans have been following the side home and away, giving them vocal support. They are getting stuck in with the new project, too.

As a reward, the club are planning to hand them replica shirts.

Every club needs supporters and Lordswood are starting from a low number. They had around 80 paying spectators for most home games last season but with a thriving social club literally on their doorstep and in the midst of a huge housing estate, there is plenty of scope to boost that number.

But, like everything, it’s one step at a time. If they get between 150-200 this season they’ll be happy.

“It won’t happen overnight,” said Peck. “But once people come and see what a nice place it is to come to, they will want return.

“Our main focus is sustainability and we’re giving the local youth a chance to give it a go. What’s the worst thing that could happen?

“We would be very proud if we see some of these youngsters make it to another level, if we can help their careers, even one or two leagues higher.”

Egham’s FA Cup visit, as well as the friendly with Gillingham, will be a chance to showcase what they are doing.

Broad, whose dad was involved in the club when they were first formed, said: “The foundations were already there. It just needed a fresh injection of ideas and we take our hats off to the people who were here before, to have kept the club going for so long.

“We now have the opportunity to push it forward.

“Jason is a great person to have involved in the club, with so much experience in the game.

“He’s been a professional footballer at a high level - he’s looking to push the youth and we would love to see some of these young players go on and do well.

“We’re trying to get people in the door and make it an enjoyable experience when they come here to a game. Every week we take another step.

“We can’t run before we can walk, it’s about finding ways to push the club forward.

“We’re currently doing a six-month project in two months, it’s like DIY SOS!”

The Gillingham game is around the corner. Time is ticking.

Seats need installing, the boardroom is still a shell, the advertising boards aren’t all in place, but no doubt come Tuesday Lordswood will be ready.

The owners are enthusiastic and have enough mates to call on to make sure the work is done.

“That game is massive for us,” said Broad. “We’ve done a lot of work on the pitch, cancelled a few friendlies here but kept that one because it is important.

“We now want local people to come and see what we’re doing.”