Prospective new co-owners Lloyd Hume and Dave Warr have a six-year plan to reach National League South as Ashford United takeover nears completion

The prospective new owners of Ashford United have a clear plan as their takeover nears completion.

Businessmen Lloyd Hume and Dave Warr are on the verge of taking charge at Homelands as equal partners.

Everything has been agreed with outgoing owner Don Crosbie, with the deal now awaiting FA approval.

Hume, who sold his industry-leading hair transplant clinic 18 months ago, is well-known in Kent football as a former player and manager.

He led Maidstone United to successive promotions in partnership with Alan Walker, who is Ashford’s new director of football and will be growing the club’s academy.

Warr, a big football fan and Charlton Athletic season-ticker holder, sold a highly successful lift engineering business before the Covid pandemic.

The pair retain other smaller business interests but their focus is firmly on unlocking the potential at Ashford and building on Crosbie’s years of hard work and dedication at Homelands.

Hume and Warr, who won’t be taking a penny out of the club, want to grow the business sustainably and take the Nuts & Bolts to National League South over a six-year period.

It was Dorking Wanderers owner Marc White - a friend of Hume’s - who suggested buying Ashford.

An initial meeting with Crosbie went well and Hume returned with a couple of business associates - one being Warr - as the prospect of getting involved gathered momentum.

“Their feelings were the same as mine, that the club’s got huge potential,” said Hume. “The fact it owns its own freehold and ground doesn’t limit us to what we can do to try and financially support the club.

“So, we’ve got a clear aim in our head that over the next six years we want to try and get two promotions.

“We don’t want to do it overnight, we don’t want to chuck