THERE IS intense pressure for Accrington Stanley owner Dave O’Neill to resign after the League Two club were minutes from a winding up order on Wednesday.

Stanley needed to raise £308,000 over the last eight weeks to pay off a tax debt and despite superb efforts from fans who have raised £100,000 and pledges from O’Neill that he could meet the amount in full, the club went with just £96,000 paid.

Accrington businessman Ilyas Khan stepped in at London’s High Court and pledged to pay the shortfall to stop the club going the way of 1962 and ceasing to exist. The club has a week to pay off the debt – until 4 November – or it will be closed.

Multi-millionaire Khan, who gave his 12 per cent shares in the club to the Accrington Stanley Supporters Fund earlier this month, wasn’t even due to be at the High Court but turned up with former director Peter Marsden after hearing how dire the situation was.

And this has led fans to call for O’Neill, who says he owns 51 per cent of the club although former chairman Eric Whalley is still registered as the majority shareholder at Customs House, to stand down.

Only on Saturday, O’Neill said that the debt would be paid off in full and that the club would be safe so for it to come so close to closing has angered fans, leaving more than 100 of them to protest at the club on Wednesday night demanding his resignation.

Khan, who two months ago offered to pay off the debt in return for a re-issue of shares in the club and openess about the accounts, said: "I was unaware how close the situation was until Tuesday morning when people from the club contacted me - not O’Neill or chief executive Rob Heys - and said they didn’t have the money.

"Then I saw the statement on the website where the club were going to go to the High Court and ask for more time and I knew it was down to the wire. A winding up order is just that - its undisputable - and I knew that would be the end of the club, the assets would be stripped and the players sold.

"We were minutes away from a repeat of 1962 and I just felt so angry.

"Rob and Dave didn’t know I was turning up on Wednesday at the High Court and then I heard Dave speaking to his barrister about the way to handle a winding up order,

"I couldn’t believe it. That’s when I said this isn’t going to happen. I love the club and I am willing to pay the shortfall unconditionally. I did this because of the club and not the people there. It means so much to me and to the fans - they have been superb.

"Rob and Dave didn’t even have a Plan B. I don’t know what would have happened if I hadn’t gone and said me and Peter Marsden would guarantee the debt."

Khan was set to meet with Rob Heys yesterday (Thursday) and was going to wire the difference straight through to the HMS revenue and Customs.

What also came to light in London was the club owes another £127,000 and, while O’Neill did have another £100,000 coming from the Professional Football Association who had offered to lend Stanley the money, that would be another debt.

Mr Khan added:¿"We need to know exactly what the club owes and to whom and who is the actual owner - that is the big issue - and then we can build around that.

"I don’t know what Dave will do but in the short term he and the rest of the directors need to get on with tackling the other debts at the club. I won’t have any involvement with what happens next - my job was just to make sure the club survived."

Dave O’Neill was unavailable for comment yesterday.