MICHAEL JOHNSTON has lost his handicap. Not, he regrets, the £13 million one he inherited when he replaced his good friend Jamie Moffat as Kilmarnock chairman almost two years ago, but the one he spent years at Royal Troon maintaining. If the debt remains in the books, however, at least the good ship Killie is still afloat.

Much of the credit for Kilmarnock's narrow escape from administration in 2005 can be attributed to Johnston and the club's management team of Jim Jefferies and Billy Brown. At the end of this month Killie will be able to report a modest profit for the second financial year running. It isn't making significant inroads into the £13m debt, but at least Johnston can sleep easier at night.

Not that the solicitor ever looks like a man haunted by imminent financial catastrophe. When we meet at Hampden, where he has SFA business to attend, he exudes his usual measured calmness. There will be no car boot sale at Rugby Park this summer.

There is no need, he assures me, for Kilmarnock to offload striker Steven Naismith to any club, including Rangers, looking for a bargain. And with the club's Park Hotel starting to make profits as well as being a tangible asset to comfort the bank, Johnston hopes to restore his golf handicap in the weeks ahead.

A member of Royal Troon, he is a former Ayrshire county player who played off one. Even two years ago, when he relieved Moffat of his shares and responsibilites in return for a nominal sum, he was a very decent four. "Before I became chairman I would never have missed a medal," he explains, "but last year I didn't play in one and my handicap lapsed."

The golf course, though, is where chairman and manager play an occasional bounce game. "Jim usually wins," admits Johnston. "If you think he's competitive at football he's twice as much at golf."

It is on the links, and at the weekly meal, which he has endured despite the excruciating moment when Johnston had to ask his manager and assistant to take a pay cut, that Kilmarnock business tends to get thrashed out as amicably as is possible in professional football. Not that Johnston ever gets the opportunity to play Vladimir Romanov during these encounters.

"If I stray into football tactics it meets with a frosty response," reveals the chairman. But players and contracts are discussed, which is why, unlike some other clubs, the manager and his chairman are usually singing from the same hymn sheet.

The message to predators is that it will take in excess of £1m, and maybe considerably more, to prise the 20-year-old Naismith out of Ayrshire.

According to Johnston, Southampton made a seven-figure bid for the player at the start of the season. The striker, who has scored 17 goals this season, also attracted the interest of Arsene Wenger, who invited him down to Arsenal for an assessment which included a medical. There will be further offers this summer.

"We've already had one or two informal approaches with figures mentioned," says Johnston, "but we've brushed them aside because Steven is under contract until 2010. He's a key player for us, the supporters love him and we want to keep him as long as possible.

"It would take a special offer from a special club to get him away. It has to be the right move for his career progression, while the financial side has got to be right for club.

"Ideally I would prefer him to play anywhere other than Scotland if he has to move. I don't want him coming to Rugby Park and scoring goals against Kilmarnock like Kris Boyd has been doing. It's quite painful watching one of your own doing that. I'd rather Steven went down south than stayed in Scotland."

The reality is that Naismith will be sold, sooner or later, but at what price?

"When Southampton came in with their offer I discussed it with Jim, who felt Steven would be worth more in future and we should hold on to him," Johnston replies. "It's interesting to see what other SPL players are being sold for in the transfer market. Anthony Stokes went to Sunderland for £2m, as did Kevin Thomson to Rangers. I await Scott Brown's developments with interest, but regardless there now seems to be better value attached to players who have established themselves in the SPL. Hopefully we'll benefit from the decision not to sell him last summer."

If Naismith's departure is inevitable, Johnston hopes that Jefferies and Brown will remain at Rugby Park until they are put out to pasture. That would be a startling commitment in football these days, but the closest the chairman comes to waking up in a cold sweat during the night is when his unconscious thoughts stray to the management team being lured away.

It nearly happened 18 months ago, when Dundee United needed to replace Gordon Chisholm. Jefferies and Brown would probably have gone, but Johnston boosted their salaries. Then, when Walter Smith abruptly left the Scotland post, there was another scare for the chairman when Jefferies' name was put in the frame.

"There was no formal approach from the SFA," admits Johnston, "although he was mentioned in dispatches." But if Jefferies had been offered the job, the club wouldn't have stood in his way.

"I don't think there's any point in keeping somebody in a post if they don't want to be there," the chairman continues. "The Scotland job would have been a great challenge; if Jim had been offered it and wanted to go that would have been it.

"Hopefully, though, he and Billy are happy with their lot at Kilmarnock and will stay with us for the rest of their active careers."

The pair have delivered the stable environment Kilmarnock need if they are to reduce their debt mountain. Another top-six finish this season, and a run to the final of the CIS Cup which netted in the region of £500,000 alone. If the 5-1 defeat by Hibs was crushing, the day at least kept the club solvent.

Remarkably, Kilmarnock are run by a two-man board. The other member is Gordon Jackson, who 10 days ago lost his seat in the Scottish Parliament to Nicola Sturgeon. The election was a bit of a disaster for those associated with Killie as celebrity fan Cathy Jamieson has almost certainly lost her position of Justice Minister.

With only one other director to account to, Johnston doesn't have to bother unduly about democracy - but so far at least his methods have given Kilmarnock supporters and shareholders little cause for concern. Recovery will be achieved by stealth, and there will be no attempt to emulate the Third Way which gave John Boyle so much grief at Motherwell.

An investor, Tom Coakley, is making overtures at Fir Park and may assume a controlling interest. There is no such scenario in the offing in Kilmarnock, where Johnston says local businessmen are only interested in playing supporting roles.

"I'm sure John Boyle will be pleased to sit down and have a serious chat with him," says Johnston. "I don't know Tom Coakley but if he is local and has strong ties to the area that's ideal - especially if he's willing to get stuck in and put his hard earned millions into the club. There's more of a realisation now, though, that you can't get carried away and that you must stick to financial plans. John Boyle tried to do it a different way and Motherwell went into administration as a result.

"He thought building an attractive team would persuade spectators to leave the Old Firm and come back to Motherwell but it didn't work. While it would be tempting for us to try the same strategy, we have to attempt to get the fans back in small numbers."

It's an uphill struggle to prevent the buses heading for Glasgow, but as far as Johnston is concerned the job of keeping Kilmarnock above water is achievable while Jefferies and Brown are at the helm.

What, though, is the big deal about finishing in the top six?

"When I see other clubs being sucked into the relegation battle," he replies. "The main thing as far as I'm concerned is that we can't finish worse than sixth. It also gives us an extra home game against the Old Firm."

Such is the fragility of football finances in Scotland. It has been ever thus, but after so nearly hitting the rocks two years ago Kilmarnock have demonstrated that prudence and modest success can walk hand in hand.