NEWCASTLE United chairman Freddy Shepherd breathed a sigh of relief yesterday after figures showed the club's early Champions League exit was not the financial disaster many had feared.

United missed out on the European millions when they went out of this season's competition in the qualifying stages to Partizan Belgrade.

However, Sir Bobby Robson's men have bounced back from that blow to put themselves in the running for another top-four finish.

They also went into last night's Uefa Cup fourth round clash with Real Mallorca holding a 4-1 advantage from the first leg, and went through 7-1 on aggregate.

That, as well as prudent housekeeping on the part of the club's moneymen, has helped offset the effects of missing out on the Champions League.

Mr Shepherd was a happy man as interim figures for the half-year ended January 31 were published.

"They are fantastic," he said.

"Everybody, I think, was expecting to see figures that were not as good as last year and expecting to see something of a downturn, but all brands and all the different sectors of the business have come through."

The figures show a fall in group turnover of 15 per cent from £56.2m to £48m.

There was a reduction in total operating profit from £7.4m to £4.6m and operating profit before player amortisation and trading fell to £9m from £11.1m.

Television and broadcasting revenues fell by £7.4m from £21.5m, but wages and salaries increased by only two per cent to £23.3m and remain less than 50 per cent of turnover.