Hamilton chairman Les Gray believes talks on league reconstruction are not over yet, insisting Ross County chairman Roy MacGregor is not the type of man to stand in the way of progress.
St Mirren chairman Stewart Gilmour has already confirmed his side will vote against plans for a new 12-12-18 set-up when the 12 Scottish Premier League clubs hold a ballot on Monday.
See our new dossier on league reconstruction - and how you can shape the debate
That has put intense pressure on Staggies chief MacGregor to put his own concerns about the proposals - which would also see the SPL merged with the Scottish Football League to form one body and a fairer financial distribution model introduced - to one side and back the plans.
With an 11-1 majority needed by the SPL to pass the scheme, County's vote now looks like it could be decisive but MacGregor will wait until Friday before making his mind up.
Gray, who claims Irn-Bru First Division clubs like his face extinction if change is not implemented next season, is hopeful MacGregor will not shoot down their survival hopes.
He told Press Association Sport: "Until this vote actually takes place, there will be a lot of pontification and people talking a lot of nonsense to be honest.
"The bottom line is that I know Roy MacGregor pretty well and knowing the man the way I do, and I've known him for 15 years, he won't want to be the man that stops progress for Scottish football.
"He is in a really difficult position as a result of St Mirren coming out and making public what they intend to do.
"Roy will be thinking long and hard about that over the next few days and making a decision that could halt progress will weigh heavily on him.
"But he has made it clear to a lot of people that he has not made his mind up yet."
The SFL clubs have vowed to hold their own vote on the matter a week on Friday but the poll of 29 member clubs - with associate members Rangers barred from casting a ballot - could yet prove inconsequential should the SPL fail to reach the required majority.
There have been suggestions that, if that happens, the First Divisions clubs will walk away from the SFL to form SPL2.
Whatever the outcome, Gray is certain the reconstruction debate will not end before this summer.
He said: "I'm absolutely certain that this is not dead and buried.
"There are various alternatives. We still have the SFL vote and there are full-time clubs that need this reconstruction to happen for them to survive. And if it doesn't, these full-time clubs will probably take action and you know what that will mean.
"But there is no point speculating about SPL2 until we see what happens with the two votes."
Hamilton recently parted company with boss Billy Reid, with former Scotland and Rangers captain Barry Ferguson tipped to takeover at his hometown club.
Gray, though, insists he has not spoken to the Blackpool midfielder.
"Nobody phoned me to ask me to deny that or confirm that," he said. "If they had asked me, I would have told them that we have not spoken to Barry Ferguson, nor is it our intention to."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article