TWO Ipswich Town directors are ready to quit the board as the club paves the way for fresh blood at the top.It was announced yesterday that Lord Richard Ryder was to stand down after five years as a director at Portman Road, but the EADT can today reveal another board member will also be leaving soon.

TWO Ipswich Town directors are ready to quit the board as the club paves the way for fresh blood at the top.

It was announced yesterday that Lord Richard Ryder was to stand down after five years as a director at Portman Road, but the EADT can today reveal another board member will also be leaving soon.

The board are due to convene next week for their regular monthly meeting but both men may wait until after the club completes a planned share issue and an extraordinary general meeting is held later this year before formally announcing their decision to step down.

The duo have already discussed their intentions with chairman David Sheepshanks who tried to dissuade them, although there is no suggestion that there has been a bust-up in the board room.

Directors Lord Ryder, John Kerr, Philip Hope-Cobbold, Roger Finbow and Richard Moore have stood shoulder to shoulder behind Sheepshanks and chief executive Derek Bowden during the past two troubled years and the whole board dipped into their own pockets to the tune of £350,000 to help the club come out of administration.

Sheepshanks revealed in the EADT last weekend that a number of new directors would be invited onto the board after the autumn share issue to strengthen the existing board as the club enters a new era.

The departure of the duo will not affect the running of the club and each will continue to have a significant financial interest in Ipswich Town and will continue to attend as many games, home and away as possible.

Bowden, in his chief executive role, will take on greater day-to-day responsibility on the business side of the club as Sheepshanks takes a step back.