AS an independent businessman, the prospect of an office job would have horrified Dave O’Neill two years ago – let alone running Accrington Stanley.

But O’Neill now finds himself as the man in charge of day-to-day affairs at the club after Eric Whalley’s 14-year reign as chairman came to an end this week.

Whether he becomes chairman will be decided when he completes his takeover of the club from Whalley in the next few days.

On the face of it, O’Neill appears to be everything Whalley never was - reserved and, well, conventional.

Hailing from Earby, he is not a lifelong fan of the club but admits he has been unable to shake off the Stanley bug ever since he first became involved with the Reds.

He has worked at the club for 18 months, in unpaid roles as commercial manager and then general manager, investing £150,000 last July to help Stanley pay a previous tax bill.

“It’s something that grows on you,” said the 52-year-old, who owns a video company as well as a car bodyshop.

“Initially I came as cameraman, doing the video and all the analysis, and it just sort of engrosses you and takes you over really.

“Being in full-time jobs" target="_blank">employment or doing something nine till five again was not something that was on my agenda two years ago.

“It’s only over the last 12 months that I became more involved.

“But I’m not one of these people who flags himself up saying I’m a chairman now or I’m a major shareholder.

“I just want to get on with the job. I don’t need a title.”

O’Neill knows that Stanley will take time to return to an even keel - such has been the turbulence of the last few months, which has seen the club stave off winding up proceedings over an unpaid £300,000 tax bill.

But he does have ambitions for the club and intends to keep supporters informed of developments.

“Obviously now it’s out in the open about the tax investigation,” he said.

“At the club we knew about it around Christmas time. It was about to come to a head and we were hoping to put things to rights before it was made public and do everything behind closed doors so it didn’t alarm anybody.

“But we weren’t able to do that. Now it’s out in the open there are no secrets at the club. We’re an open book.

“Hopefully we’re in a position where we can move forward with various things now.

“There are lots of things we want to implement and probably need to implement for the club to make progress.

“I think certainly there are going to be a few bridges that needed building.

“We need to be working more on the community scheme. There were 85 kids visiting on Tuesday and I think if we can do that once a week then the potential to grow the crowds is there.

“We can breed into the younger generation that we have a club on the doorstep.

“Obviously the club at the minute is looking for stability and we need to get some stability back into the club.

“Once we get on a financial footing, there’s no reason why we can’t progress a league or two.”