New St Albans City chairman Ian Ridley will make a decision on manager Steve Castle’s future this week.

Well-respected national sports writer Ridley was unveiled as chairman at Clarence Park last week and one of his first tasks will be to decide if Castle is the man to take the club forward next season.

Ridley, who spent almost one year as a Saints director in 2006, said: “Steve is away on holiday and I’m still in the process of reviewing the club. I just need to look at every angle of the club and a decision will be made by the end of this week.

“A lot of things happened last season. There were off field problems and ten point deductions and people say even with the ten points we wouldn’t have survived but the effect on morale is huge and you can’t say that.

“In many ways it’s not a season to judge Steve on. What you have to judge Steve on is character and he saw it through in very difficult circumstances.

“He begged, borrowed and stole to get players to the club and keep it going. OK, the team was not particularly attractive or exciting at times but he was working with his hands tied in very difficult circumstances and all that has to be taken into consideration.

“What I’m trying to do is be fair to everybody. I’m trying to be fair to the manager, trying to be fair to the fans and the future aspirations of the club and I will balance all those up and come to a decision about what I think is the best way forward.”

Ridley will be assisted by vice-chairman Nick Archer at Clarence Park and he has already targeted a play-off push next season as they look to bounce back from their Conference South relegation.

The former Weymouth chairman said: “I can’t answer for what the previous chairman did and what his policy was. I can only tell you what mine is and that is to work with the manager in recruiting a squad that is capable of challenging for a play-off spot in the Southern League.

“We can’t promise too much. We can’t promise the earth. We’ve got to be conservative and I keep saying talk is cheap and what we have to do is deliver on that talk. I don’t want to promise promotion and championships but what I do want to do is say realistically this is the sort of club that should be a play-off team next season at the very least.

“If that means putting people on contracts that we deem are worth it then we’ll do that. If that means having others on non contract or paying more for this player and less for that player we’ll do all those things.

“The one thing I can say is that I will be there for the manager as an ear and as a shoulder to lean on. But I can’t tell him to pick a side and I can’t tell him what players to recruit. In the end he’s got to be comfortable with the people he’s working with and it’s his responsibility.”

Ridley, who has lived in the area for 30 years, has been brought back to Clarence Park following the takeover of the club by joint owners John McGowan and Lawrence Levy.

He left the club five years ago after being excluded from the decision making process by former chairman John Gibson.

Ridley said: “The main problem was I wasn’t as involved in the decision making process as much as I hoped to be. John Gibson had his own way of doing things but I was unable to make a commercial input so there didn’t seem to be much point being on the board.

“One of the reasons I’ve been brought back to the club I think is to implement ideas. Anyone can have ideas but it’s actually making sure they are followed through. All ideas are designed for two things.

“One is to bring in revenue to make sure we have the best possible first team we can put out on the pitch. Secondly we want to make the whole spectator experience more enjoyable at the football club and if we can keep those two aims in mind we won’t go far wrong.”

The Saints are set to face Azerbaijan club Gabala in a friendly at Clarence Park on Sunday, July 24. Tony Adams’ side will provide the opposition and St Albans are expected to announce more games in the next week.