Rupert Lowe and Guy Askham this week turned down Leon Crouch's £1.5m offer to buy ALL their shares, the Daily Echo can today reveal.

The second largest shareholder offered the chairman 50p each for all his 1,877,969 shares - which works out at about £938,000.

New Forest-based Crouch also offered vice-chairman Guy Askham the same price for his 1,120,000 shares - which would have landed the former Dell chairman £560,000 had he accepted.

But both of them refused Crouch's offer, which was then followed by another snub - Crouch failing to win a place on the board at Thursday's meeting.

Don't miss tonight's Echo in which we publish Leon Crouch's letter to Rupert Lowe outlining why he believes he should be on Saints' board.