MICHAEL Wilde's ever-increasing Saints powerbase has received another massive boost.

The Daily Echo can today reveal the Corbett family - the relations of former Saints president and long-serving director John Corbett - have agreed to proxy their six per cent shareholding in the club to Wilde.

As a result, majority shareholder Wilde can boast around a quarter of Southamp-ton Leisure Holdings' total shares.

That's more than the personal shareholdings of chairman Rupert Lowe and his board supporters Guy Askham, Mike Richards, Michael Withers, David Windsor-Clive and Andrew Cowen put together.

The Corbett family are devoted fans - they have seven season tickets - and this is the first time they have ever spoken publicy about the under-pressure Lowe.

Should Wilde and Leon Crouch - Saints' leading two shareholders - ever join forces in a bid to oust Lowe, they could now rely on around 34 per cent of the total shares.

In addition, dissenting directors Keith Wiseman, Ian Gordon, Brian Hunt and Paul Thompson would be likely to support them, given the fact all four have sold shares to Wilde in recent weeks.

Sarwan Singh, who holds 3.5 per cent of the shares, has previously told the Daily Echo he is unhappy with the way the club has been run.

And Crouch told the Echo yesterday he was doubly keen to continue buying shares in the wake of Sir Clive Woodward's outspoken attack on him.

All of John Corbett's sons and daughters - Peter Corbett, Robert Corbett, Mary Corbett and Sarah Nangle - are shareholders, as are other family nephews and nieces.

Mary Corbett, who has met Wilde on a couple of occasions, last night gave the Daily Echo the following statement: "The Corbett family have decided now is the time for change and are fully supportive of Mr Wilde.

"We believe he has the club's best interests at heart and for that reason we have granted him full proxy to vote on our behalf at any general meeting of shareholders.

"We appreciate Rupert Lowe's contribution to Saints in his earlier years. However, over the last two years, our league demise has revealed fundamental problems within the club.

"It is alarming four loyal directors felt obliged to sell their shares in order to get the message across that they are not in agreement with Rupert Lowe's decision-making style.

"Myself and my family are saddened at this sorry state of affairs and we believe the fans deserve better, for they are the life and soul of the club.

"Southampton should be a Premier League club, not languishing near the bottom of the Championship.

"With such current instability, it is very unlikely that the real Spirit of Southampton can ever flourish.

"We believe that a more transparent style of corporate governance is necessary.

"With regards to publicly-quoted football clubs, the roles of chairman and chief executive should be clearly separated."

John Corbett, who has a hospitality suite named after him at St Mary's, helped rescue Saints from oblivion when he and uncle Herbert Blaregrave paid off an £11,000 debt back in 1936.

Corbett, who died in January 1998 aged 92, took out a loan to help pay the players during the Second World War and even spent a brief period as first team manager.

But possibly his greatest service to Saints was to buy Jacksons Farm - a 40-acre site in Horton Heath - back in 1969 for around £16,000 and give it to the club, only asking they pay him back over a period of time without any interest.

The site would now be worth millions were it to be sold for commercial purposes.

Mary Corbett added: "Our father would be very worried if he knew what had happened to the club.

"He always had the club's best interests at heart and he would be upset to see the club so divided.

"There is no longer the unity within the club there was during his days.

"The entire Corbett family is saddened by the current disunity and low morale surrounding the club, and we feel Michael Wilde is the best positioned to move the club forward and to restore the values that have always under-pinned the club."