Culina took control in February after Terry Butcher failed to take the club beyond the first round of last season’s finals.

In his opening matches for the Asian Champions League, he transformed the side and played attractive winning football, only narrowing missing out on a quarter-finals berth.

But since then, he has just won three of his 15 games with the club including a disastrous pre-season campaign and last weekend’s loss at home against bottom of the league Wellington Phoenix.

Rumours among fans claimed the board had finally tired of Culina’s performance and had decided to sack the coach.

But a club spokesman said: “I can categorically deny that.

“There was a board meeting earlier this week but we have board meetings on a regular basis and the topic of the coach never came up at any stage.”