CHAIRMAN Paul Baker admits that Cheltenham Town's overriding priority for the coming season is to break even as they look to recover from last year's troubled campaign.

With the big kick-off less than a month away, Robins boss Martin Allen has 15 professionals contracted, with one of them, John Finnigan, seemingly on his way to either Kidderminster Harriers or Newport County.

Cheltenham were relegated to League Two last season and were teetering on the edge of administration before cuts were made to keep them afloat.

Baker said a season of stability off the field would take precedence over on-field events as he tried to safeguard the future of the cash-strapped club.

"My hopes for the new season are to finish outside the bottom two, and if we can finish mid-table that would be great," Baker said.

"Supporters may be disappointed, but the main issue is financial survival and we want to break even, which is something we have not done before.

"If we can do that and finish in the middle of the division, I believe we will have a good chance of challenging during the 2010-11 season, when we will be able to kick on."

Baker defended boss Allen, who was given extra funds in an attempt to save the club from the drop last year.

Allen made more than 20 signings, but Cheltenham ended up 11 points from safety after releasing several key players to ease cash flow difficulties.

"I urge everyone to get behind the manager because Martin has a massive task on his hands," he said.

"He can only spend what we allow and last season's overspending was our fault, not Martin's.

"We spent money in order to try and stay up, which would have given us an extra £250,000 from the Football League next season, but it didn't happen and we hold our hands up and admit to making mistakes."

Cheltenham are celebrating the 10th anniversary of their promotion to the Football League and Baker said he was confident they could preserve their status among the elite 92, despite the hardships that might lie ahead in the next 12 months.

"Financial sustainability will come first, but I appreciate we have to put out our strongest possible team because relegation to the Blue Square Premier would leave us back where we started, which nobody wants," he said.

"We have consistently outperformed our financial strength and I believe we can do that again with everything far more focused on the first team."

Baker said any increases to Allen's budget would depend on the size of home crowds.

"If we have a good start, we may be able to give Martin funds to strengthen in January," he said.

"We are as ambitious as the people of Cheltenham are and we will run our ship based on income. The best way of increasing that is to attract more people through the turnstiles."

● Huddersfield striker Tom Denton will join Cheltenham for training today and is set to play against Southampton tomorrow. Allen is looking to sign him on a long-term loan.