New Margate chairman Alistair Bayliss has vowed he is in it for the long haul at Hartsdown but admits the next two games could be crucial to the club’s immediate prospects.

The Blues host second-placed St Albans in Vanarama National League South on Saturday before facing Charlton at home in the Kent Reliance Senior Cup on Wednesday (December 14) and Mr Bayliss hopes fans will turn out in force.

He said the club continue to lead a hand-to-mouth existence and any money generated from the last two home games before Christmas could provide a lifeline.

Mr Bayliss said: “Basically all we’ve got to survive on as we speak today are the next two home games.

“There is no money in the bank, so the first thing I need to do is appeal to everybody, supporters, businesses everyone, to get more involved again.

“I’ve said over the past few days that Margate have got terrific potential as a football club if it’s driven in the right direction but if we don’t get enough fans through the gate and we don’t have enough revenue to get through December, then we don’t know where we are.”

Mr Bayliss took over as Gate chairman and majority shareholder following owner John Webb’s resignation last Wednesday but said it was not a role he had envisaged taking when he came in as co-chairman designate in September.

He added: “Not in a million years and if you’d have said that was going to happen I’d have laughed at you. But when you’ve got the fans constantly behind you, you look at them and you just want to do your best for everybody.”

Mr Bayliss says that remaining in Vanarama South remains the club’s priority on the pitch this season and he is already working hard to improve the club’s infrastructure off it.

At the moment he and Ricky Owen are the sole directors and he admits he needs to establish a stronger administrative and financial platform before he can start planning too far ahead.

He added: “I haven’t got a four or five-year plan, I don’t even have a plan to get through December yet because obviously it’s (the chairman’s job) just been thrust upon me.

“What I want to be able to do is have a board of directors that I can build around me so that we can sit down and put together a four or five-year plan.

“However, that’s a long term strategy, right now it’s about getting through December, it’s about getting through January.”