Danny Wilson can expect the fall-out from the 'gang-of-four' MPs demanding his sacking as boss of Sheffield Wednesday to continue in the next few weeks.

Former Wednesday director Joe Ashton, who resigned from his role as vice-president of the club on Friday after a long-running feud with chairman Dave Richards, today warned: "This is not the end of it."

Ashton reckons the call for Wilson to bite the bullet from the political quartet - which also includes Education and Employment secretary David Blunkett, Bill Michie and Clive Betts - on the eve of the Owls' encouraging 2-0 win over relegation rivals Bradford City yesterday was like "a stick of dynamite under the team".

Wednesday produced their best performance of the season to beat fellow strugglers Bradford to close the gap on Premiership safety to seven points.

Wilson, still convinced his team will survive, reckons the MPs have only "embarrassed themselves" with their comments, but Ashton is adamant they will continue to do what they think is right for Wednesday.

"We want to save the club financially and keep it in the Premier League and we're going to do anything we can to keep them up," said Ashton.

"We're not going to do a Nottingham Forest or Manchester City and go into the wilderness for years.

"We, the MPs, are going to set the agenda in our time and in our way. But you have to look at the position of the team.

"Danny Wilson is a smashing bloke, and everybody loves him. He's a great guy, and we do have genuine sympathy for him.

"But if a manager's on several hundred thousands of pounds a year he has to deliver. It's not like a guy driving a bus. It's a guy in charge of a very, very big club with a multi-million pound turnover.

"In a situation like that, whether he's running a business in the City or whatever, he has to deliver the goods and they're not being delivered.

"The fans understand. I received a superb reaction from them. Two or three of the younger ones were backing Danny, but many of the long-term supporters were asking why we hadn't done this two months ago.

"For weeks and weeks we were being stopped in banks, chip shops and post offices by people wanting to know what was happening at Hillsborough.

"This is a very serious situation. Sheff-ield is the fourth largest city in the country and should have a flagship Premiership team. But we haven't had a decent side for years."

It led to the four MPs setting up a meeting with Charterhouse, who own 36 per cent of the club following a £15.6 million investment almost three years ago.

The bank, however, is a silent partner. They have no say in the day-to-day running of Wednesday, and their future role remains a mystery.

"This is why we had the meeting with Charterhouse, during which many issues were raised."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.