London Colney Football Club have been saved from extinction – and have turned to a former St Albans City man to guide them back to the top of the table.

Ken Charlery, who also played for Barnet, Peterborough United and Birmingham City in his career, will take over the managerial duties at Cotlandswick while Gareth Davies has been installed as the new chairman.

Charlery will be assisted by another former Saints coach, Stuart Crawford.

The Spartan South Midlands League Premier Division club have suffered a roller-coaster few months.

Having won the league last season in style, and earned promotion to step four of the national league system for the first time in their history, they were rocked when four main members of the committee resigned.

Their promotion was subsequently turned down and their place given to Hertford Town.

But it was their future that caused the most worries with the club’s very existence at stake.

However, those fears have been allayed.

In a statement on the club website, they said: “London Colney FC are delighted to announce that a consortium headed up by former Peterborough, Watford and Birmingham centre forward Ken Charlery have agreed to become the new custodians of the club with immediate effect.

“The Blueboys founded in 1907 who were perilously close to folding this month will now take their place for the 2017/18 season in the Spartan South Midlands League Premier Division, in which it finished last season as champions.

“Ken Charlery and his assistant Stuart Crawford have already begun work on assembling the squad for the coming season and details of forthcoming pre season training and friendlies will be announced in the coming weeks.

“The new consortium would like to place on record its thanks to Tony Clafton and Dave Brock for making this happen so smoothly and effortlessly and also to the committee members for its tireless work over the years in taking LCFC to the level it is now at.”