Wanderers made a £200,000 profit en route to relegation from the Premier League.

But Wanderers chief Gordon Hargreaves insisted today that nothing could compensate for the bitter disappointment of dropping out of the top flight.

"Financially, the club had a very successful year," the Burnden chairman confirmed. "Bearing in mind all the various increased costs relating to the Premier League, we are pleased to have made a profit.

"But the pain of relegation is still there. It is very hurtful and it makes us doubly determined to get back up there."

Figures released today show how well the Burnden finances were managed during their stint in the big-time.

But balance sheet details reveal that the club would have made its biggest ever loss if Alan Stubbs hadn't been sold to Celtic at the end of the season.

Mr Hargreaves admitted: "If the Stubbs deal hadn't gone through, our position would have been £3 million worse ... but money was never the issue.

"If we'd had the chance we would have held onto players like Alan Stubbs, Jason McAteer and Sasa Curcic and stayed up. And we would still have found additional money.

"But it's been well chronicled that we were unable to hold onto these players. The club is always prepared to be out of pocket anywhere between £3 million and £5 million if we have to fund transfers. And we will continue to make money available to improve the squad where it is necessary."

The Burnden balance sheet reveals the dramatic transformation in the club's financial dealings after winning promotion to the Premiership.

Turnover in the year ending June 30 rocketed from £6 million to £14.3 million. Gate receipts soared to almost £3.4 million and Sky TV chipped in another million. The club's two souvenir shops took £740,000 at the tills and royalties from Premier League products and merchandise carrying the Wanderers name raked in a tidy £200,000.

Burnden managers are now buying and selling on the transfer market at unprecedented levels and, consequently, the wage bill has shot up to a record £4.9 million (including £1.6 million worth of signing on fees).

Record price tags of £1.5 million went on Gerry Taggart and Sasa Curcic with Nathan Blake costing almost as much. The sales of Jason McAteer and Alan Stubbs recouped £8 million but staggered payments on incoming and outgoing transfers give a false impression of Wanderers having made a surplus of £500,000 on the year's dealings.

The sale of Curcic and the purchase of Danish duo Per Frandsen and Michael Johansen will be included in next year's balance sheet.

The figures are modest compared with Newcastle, who can pay £15 million for the likes of Alan Shearer, and Manchester United, who have just increased their wage bill by £5 million a year. But Wanderers have never played for such high stakes.

In the 1987-88 season, when they won promotion back to Division Three at the first attempt, the club had a turnover of £864,000 with gate receipts £282,000 and a wage bill of £641,000. Phil Neal was only allowed to spend £157,000 on the transfer market that season.

Even in 1991, when things were starting to look up after the financial constraints of the Eighties, turnover was still a modest £1.7 million, gate receipts were £860,000 and the wage bill was still under £900,000.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.