Chairman Kelvin Thomas says the profit Oxford United have just posted for last year shows the club are in a healthy financial position.

United turned a loss of £825,000 the previous 12 months into a £403,000 profit for the year ending June 2010 – a turnaround of £1.2m.

In filing accounts for the year, Oxford also reported a 37 per cent increase in turnover from £1.9m to £2.6m.

The club’s operating profit/loss before player transactions also improved by £742,000, to a loss of £91,000 compared to an £833,000 loss in the year ending June 2009.

Thomas told me: “It’s a pretty positive position. There aren’t many businesses which are making a profit in the current economic situation.”

A cut, believed to have been around £500,000, from the £3m sale of their former midfielder Dean Whitehead from Sunderland to Stoke as a result of a sell-on clause, helped to make it the club’s best year off the pitch, as well as on it, for years.

But there were other significant factors too, which included reaching and winning the Blue Square Ppremier play-off final at Wembley, higher average home gates of around 6,000, and new sponsorship deals, increased revenue from advertising and the sale of executive boxes.

Thomas said: “These financial results show the club to be in a healthy position off the pitch, which is vital to the long-term success of the club on the pitch.

“We had hoped for even better results, as predicted at the last fans’ forum. However, the revenue from Wembley was less than expected, but the accounts show a significant improvement from the previous year.”

United had been hoping that reaching and winning the play-off final would have generated around £250,000.

But it’s understood the two finalists only received a relatively small proportion of the revenue compared to what the Football Conference, as the hosting organisation, made.

Thomas would not go into the amount United made from Wembley, which he saidwas for the club’s shareholders first, but he emphasised the overall picture for the year was fantastically positive.

“What is especially pleasing is that we were able to improve the financial position and reduce debt, while also achieving success on the pitch by gaining promotion back into the Football League,” he added.

“We expect this trend to continue moving forward and are confident that we will show a net profit before any player transactions for the year ending 2011.”