THERE is half an hour left at St James’ Park. Newcastle United are two goals to the good against Preston and on course to extend their lead at the top of the Championship.

Just before the Geordie supporters, who again turned out in force for second tier football yesterday, chose to single out Chris Hughton for praise for the first time on Tyneside, there was the usual hostilities shown towards owner Mike Ashley.

There has not been a game this season that Ashley has not been subjected to abuse from the stands, with chants of ‘You fat, Cockney *******, get out of our club’ becoming one of the most regular in the last eight months.

Ashley has made monumental errors. Errors which have led to the demise of one of the country’s biggest clubs, embarrassed the city, Newcastle supporters and Magpies legends Kevin Keegan and, to an extent, Alan Shearer.

Newcastle’s fall from grace under his leadership has been astonishing and his attempts to sell the club on during the last 18 months humiliating. It is difficult to have any sympathy for an owner that has overseen such a calamitous state of affairs.

What has happened has happened, however. Relegation was confirmed last May and the days of Keegan and Shearer leading their beloved club are long gone.

But aside from all of those things, Newcastle United are top of the Championship again and if they return to the Premier League this season, the club’s finances will be in a far greater state than they were eight months ago.

Turnover might have dropped to around £50m and the wage bill still stands at a staggering £40m for a Football League club. In comparison to last season, though, the wage bill has almost been halved.

And if Hughton can deliver promotion this season, Newcastle will bank around £40m from the Premier League television revenue alone, so does Ashley deserve his little bit of credit for this season’s work? I doubt he will get it, but maybe.

It has been claimed today that Ashley had to make an emergency £25m loan just to keep Newcastle going in December, in a similar way to the refinancing Steve Gibson carried out at Middlesbrough earlier in the year.

The loan might effectively be offset against the second and final parachute payment from the Premier League which is due in August, but it remains the case that Ashley has taken such a gamble when he could quite easily have thrown the towel in.

But while Gibson’s actions were hailed as sensible housekeeping, Ashley is still vilified by the supporters.

That, mainly, is because Ashley is not in credit with supporters on Tyneside, credit which local hero Gibson has in abundance on Teesside ever since he helped save the club from liquidation 23 years ago.

Ashley has, via his managing director Derek Llambias, admitted to making mistakes during his days in control at St James’, so at what point will the fans give him an easier time?

Or, is the future an irrelevance, will he never be forgiven for a disastrous first two years at the helm?