Kingstonian boss Alan Dowson will hammer out a new deal for next season’s playing budget with the board of directors this week – but do not expect any changes to his squad any time soon.

The Kingsmeadow chief, left, is set to rebuild his team this summer and has already spoken to seven potential targets since the end of the campaign.

Ks finished outside of the Ryman Premier League top 10 and were comprehensively beaten by Hendon in the London Senior Cup final to illustrate the gap between them and a potential play-off challenge.

Dowson, an interested observer at the Surrey Senior Cup final last week, has targeted exactly that from his sixth full season in charge next term.

But he has admitted he will take his time in the transfer market this summer – despite being keen to beef up his squad.

“I made the mistake of jumping in too soon last year and I will not be doing that again,” said Dowson.

“I have watched a lot of players and spoken to about six or seven already but these things take time and I’ll not be rushing into anything.

“The board have been very supportive of me and hopefully that will continue to be the case in terms of the budget.

“They want to get into the Conference South and I would like to think there will be some exciting news next week.”

Sutton United’s 3-1 humbling at the hands of Woking last week proved how far Kingstonian have to go to be a Blue Square South force if they were to get there.

Dowson, who had United’s Romone McCrae on loan for a spell last season, is ambitious to take Ks to the next level and has not ruled out picking up a few Sutton cast-offs.

“There were 22 players out there last week that I would love to have, but they might be a bit out of reach,” he said.

“I keep in touch with Paul Doswell at Sutton so I know what the situation is there. Players might become available later in the summer so we will wait and see.”