SUNDERLAND Football Club put one over archrival Newcastle yesterday with a thumping victory on the balance sheets - scoring a 225 per cent increase in full-year pre-tax profits.

Sunderland may no longer be known as the Bank of England club, but a successful return to the top flight, and the associated lucrative TV income, has triggered a boost in their fortunes.

Players wage costs soared during the year, rising more than 100 per cent to £14.6m, compared with £6.8m from their final season in the First Division.

Despite this, pre-tax profits at the club in the 12 months to May 31 rose to £4.8m, compared with £1.5m at the same point last year, with turnover up to £36.3m, against £24.1m last time.

After an excellent season on the pitch, and attendances up, club chief executive John Fickling, who described the figures as "tremendous", was pleased to go against the trend of other Premiership clubs.

"We are delighted to have bucked the trend with a lot of football clubs posting losses recently," he said.

"What people fail to realise is that we have achieved these results having spent £18m on players, a further £10m extending the Stadium of Light (SOL) and £2m to secure the Whitburn site for the Academy of Light."

The club has planning permission in place for further development at the SOL to take the capacity up to 55,500.

Manchester United, Newcastle and Chelsea all reported either reduced profits or wider losses this month, largely because of the rising wages bill.

The overall financial picture at Sunderland was complicated, however, by the club's decision to extend its financial year to 14 months to bring it into line with other Premiership clubs.

On this measure, to July 31, pre-tax profits were actually down, to £418,000. But this period included the ''close'' season before the start of the new playing season, when the club had to absorb £5.5m of fixed costs and only brought in £1m.