Alex Brown felt the time was right for a new challenge after arriving at Ashford from Hythe.

Brown joined the Nuts & Bolts after three years in the Cannons’ midfield.

With Steve Watt, his old Maidstone team-mate, back in charge at Reachfields, the easy option would have been to stay put.

But the 29-year-old fancies adding to his two promotions with the Stones and sees an opportunity to do that with Tommy Warrilow’s Isthmian South East play-off finalists.

“Tommy gave me a call and ended up persuading me to come down,” said Brown, who started his career at Gillingham.

“I just thought, ‘Yeah, why not?’.

“It’s a new challenge, they nearly got promoted last year and I want to get another promotion under my belt before it’s too late.

“It’s a good club. Every time I’ve played there, there’s been a good atmosphere and Ashford are a good, solid team.

“I’ve played against Tommy’s teams a handful of times and always spoken to him and got on well with him.

“When I was at Dartford, he said if I ever left there, he wanted to sign me.

“It never happened but then he rang me in the summer, I thought it was too good an opportunity to turn down.

“Ashford want to go one step further next season and get out of this league and I want to be part of that.

“It was tempting to stay where I was, I’ve got loads of respect for Watty and he said the door’s always open.

"But, after three years, I thought if I’m going to have a change, I might as well do it now. I’m 29 now, 30 in September.”

Brown was looking forward to playing with another former team-mate in Frannie Collin but while he’s gone back to Hythe, the midfielder still knows a couple of his Ashford team-mates.

That will help him settle in as he strives to bring his all-action game to Homelands, having rebuilt his career with Hythe after suffering a serious knee injury at Margate.

“I know Liam Friend, who was my captain at Margate, and I played schoolboy football with Gary Lockyer so I know him and a couple of others,” said Brown.

“The knee’s fine now, I’m feeling fit and I want to give it a good go.

“I’m still the same player, box-to-box, and trying to nick a few goals and assists.

“The back-end of the season at Hythe I ended up being a lot more defensive-minded, but only because we were struggling in a relegation battle and we all had to change our game.

“I nearly left when everyone else did (a number of players departed following a mid-season budget cut) but Rodgo (manager James Rogers) persuaded me to stay.

“He said, ‘Are you going to help me stay in the league?’ and we had a good little team in the end and managed to stay up.”

Ashford, meanwhile, have announced the return of defender Charlie Dickens from Faversham.

Boss Warrilow said: “Charlie is strong in the air, left-footed and can play in a number of different positions for me across the backline, which is a big strength to have.”