Ashford United plan to reach National League South within five years.

Since being renamed in 2013, the club have achieved two promotions and manager Jason Whitmore believes they can climb even higher.

The Nuts & Bolts have struggled in Bostik South this season but Whitmore insists the foundations are being laid for a brighter future.

He said: “We have a five-year plan and we want to compete next year in this league, to come out. We don’t just want to make the numbers up, trying to survive.

“The reason I brought Gary Alexander in was for that reason, so that what he did at Greenwich Borough, we can do at Ashford.

“In another two years, let’s see if we can get out of the Premier Division. Can we climb a couple of leagues? We should be a Conference South club all day long so that’s got to be the first goal.

“Can we be like Dartford or Dover? They’re our model, that’s the first part and that’s down to people like me and Gary and the board.

“Are we putting the right things in place? Time will tell next season. This season we’ve cleared everything out, re-done the foundations and started again.”

The population of Ashford is more than 70,000 yet the average attendance for United home games this season is just 262.

Whitmore said: “The club is a sleeping giant and that’s what we need to understand. How can we manage that sleeping giant to get it back to where it should be, where it was years ago?

“They’re building another 5,000 houses in Ashford so it’s growing as a town. Imagine what you could do with a team that’s doing well and a club looking to move forward.

“This is the first year it’s ever had a youth system under its own umbrella. It’s always been separate, never were they one, even down to the affiliation numbers, but not any more.

“The 15 or 16 teams they have are now run by Ashford and they train at Ashford, so they’re not paying council fees to play at a park because we’ve got a 3G pitch.

“All that revenue is what we’re doing to build and sustain the club.

“I live 90 seconds from the ground and I’ve been there watching as I’ve been bringing the youth teams through.

“There is so much potential for Ashford.”