ASHFORD TOWN Football Club faces one of the biggest tests for its survival in its history, after being locked out of their ground by owners Ashford Holdings Ltd.

The club have flirted with extinction several times in a chequered history. Each time they stepped back from the brink, tightened their belts and bounced back.

This time the situation has been clouded as they no longer own the freehold to their Homelands ground.

Despite the gloom of being locked out of their home pitch after a rent dispute with Ashford Holdings, there is still hope that a rescue package can be put together to enable the club to start the new season.

But time is tight with the Ryman League having held their annual meeting this week and the new season imminent in August.

It is a complex situation of claim and counter claim between the club and the ground owners.

Town chief executive Mark Jenner has been left facing the flak as leaseholder and manager Tim Thorogood was out of the country on holiday in Spain.

All Mr Jenner would say was that he was working hard to ensure Ashford Town started the new season.

He said: "We are having sensitive discussions with the landlord about the future of the club."

A key to the whole proceedings is how Tim Thorogood sees his future as the leaseholder of the club, but he has been unable to be contacted while away.

Mr Thorogood took over the team in 2001 with the ambition of managing a senior football.

After initial success that saw him win a manager of the month award in the Southern League, life has become more difficult and results in the last few years have been poor.

Last season there was a dismal period where former international Terry Fenwick took over as manager, sending the club plunging into the relegation zone in Ashford’s first season in the Ryman League.

Thorogood returned to take over the team affairs, but the club only just managed to avoid the drop back into the Kent League on the last day of the season.

So the question mark must be over how determined he is to fight on to retain the club lease.

Adding to the mix of this complex matter is a separate dispute between the ground owners and the Ashford Town Trust of former directors.

They ensured a covenant was put on Homelands when the ground was sold back in 1998 to the consortium – then called Lacrona Holdings – backed by Rodney Marsh.

Under the agreement, a new stadium to Conference standard must be built for the club if the Homelands site is sold for development.

And with any development in that area of Kingsnorth unlikely for several years, it obviously would not be to the ground owner’s advantage to have the site left vacant and not earning any revenue.

In their statement after the repossession of the Homelands ground, Ashford Holdings said that they were keen to see senior football continue at the ground.

"(Ashford) Holdings supports the continuance of semi-professional association football in the Ashford area and is willing to enter into a new lease with a suitable person and would be particularly interested in giving such an opportunity, at a subsidised rent, to a Supporter’s Trust similar to that established by many other football clubs."

It invited any interested parties to e-mail them at ashfordholdings@gmail.com.

However, with pre-season games set to start next month and the Ryman League wanting to finalise their fixture list, time is not on the side of whoever wants to take control.

Ryman League secretary Nick Robinson said he had been surprised not to have heard from the club about the situation.

But he confirmed that anyone taking over the club’s registration would have to comply with the league’s regulations about the financial viability of a new consortium, and that all the previous group’s debts would have had to be cleared.