IAN Gordon's 18-year tenure as a director of Southampton Football Club is likely to come to an end tomorrow when he is expected to be voted off the club's board.

Two fellow directors, former chairman of the FA and city coroner Keith Wiseman and Saints vice-chairman Brian Hunt, are also expected to be voted off the football board but will retain their places on the board of Saints' parent company Southampton Leisure Holdings PLC.

The move, initiated by club chairman Rupert Lowe, will be regarded in many quarters as punishment for selling some or all of their shareholdings to Saints' major investor Michael Wilde.

Lowe cited differences over the improvements at the club's Marchwood training ground and the role of sports science as the reason behind tomorrow's extraordinary general meeting (EGM) of the board.

But in a statement to the Daily Echo, Gordon, Wiseman and Hunt rubbished that suggestion saying that was "simply not the case" and they had actually welcomed "new training methods and related ideas".

Salvation for the rebel three could come in the form of Wilde who has also proposed an EGM - a date for which must be set by Sunday - for the removal of Lowe and fellow directors Andrew Cowen, Michael Richards, David Windsor-Clive and Guy Askham.

What is certain is that for all three men, who have a combined 55 years' service as Saints directors, it will be a bitter day.