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Dickson, who runs a renovations company, took over the reins in June following previous owner Tom Tracy's decision to sell up - his first act seeing the club revert back to its original identity following last summer's unpopular FC Edinburgh rebrand.

This move prompted some fans to stop attending matches altogether with a lack of consultation their main gripe.

However, Dickson - now leading a fans-based consortium - is adamant supporters will be at the heart of the League One outfit's strategy.

New Edinburgh City chairman John Dickson. Picture: Tommy Lee

"We're listening to the fans and what they want," Dickson told the Evening News. "Yes, I own 80 per cent of the club but I want it to be fan-owned like the one at Hearts. We have an Edinburgh City Foundation. We're not trying to reinvent the wheel; we're just taking on other people's good ideas. There is a lot going on, but we are doing our hardest.

My vision for Edinburgh City is slowly but surely to hand it back to the fans. I just love football, you get to know the players, but I don't see me doing this for five or six years. I want to get to the stage where the club is in a comfortable position.

"Our goal this season is to stay in the league and finish better than we did last year (sixth). Yeah, maybe go for the play-offs for the Championship but, realistically, it's a big jump. Another issue we've got if we were to be promoted to the Championship we wouldn't be able to play at Meadowbank. It's as simple as that. We would have to ground-share. We've got our name back but the last thing we want to do is have to play at Livingston or somewhere similar. At the moment, it's baby steps. The fans who stayed away last season because of the name change are coming back.

"We do have planning permission for another stand at Meadowbank but we don't own our ground. We are basically a tenant. Why would the club build another stand for the benefit of a facility we don't own? So that one has been put on the backburner."

A new mural is now on show at Meadowbank. Picture: Tommy Lee

Dickson revealed there's already been a few tough decisions taken during his short time at the helm.

He added: "Last season's playing budget was well without our means. We know what our break-even figure is. And we were honest with the gaffer Alan (Maybury) when we took the job on. We put our cards on the table and said we wanted him to be here for the challenge. We've cut the playing budget by around £150,000 this season so when we told him, there was a long pause.

"But we asked him to go away and think about it and, give him his due, 24 hours later the phone rang and it was Alan saying he was up for the challenge. He wrote down a list of the players he wanted to keep and we've given him every player he asked for.

"We're now also training out at Winchburgh too as Meadowbank were charging us a corporate business so it was costing us an arm and a leg to train and play our games there. But the Academy has brilliant facilities, it's new, cheaper and is actually geographically better for the players as a few of them are coming through from the west."

Edinburgh City chairman John DIckson: Fans are the heartbeat of this club