Good news Newcastle fans… The club have made a profit of £32.4m

Newcastle managing director Lee Charnley has urged fans to keep the faith - despite Rafa Benitez’s boys sitting six points adrift of safety.

The Toon face a second relegation in seven years following last weekend’s 3-2 defeat at basement rivals Norwich.

And for the first time, Charnley has publicly admitted the “seriousness” of Newcastle’s situation - having denied they were in “crisis” five games ago.

Charnley said: “There are still 21 points to play for and lots can, and likely will, happen over the next seven games.

“We of course acknowledge the seriousness of our situation.

“However we must remain positive and retain the belief that we can secure our Premier League status and we are doing everything we can to support Rafa and the team.”

Charnley’s rallying cry came as Newcastle announced a post-tax profit of £32.4m for the financial year ending June 30, 2015 - a significant rise on the £18.7m figure for the previous 12 months.

The figures also showed owner Mike Ashley has not used the profit to chip away at the £129m he is owed in the form of interest-free loans from him and companies under his control.

Newcastle had £48.3m of cash in the bank at the end of the 2014-15 financial year.

But they have since blown that in the last two transfer windows - with their net spent on players totalling just shy of £80m.

And Newcastle would, of course, miss out on next year’s £100m Premier League TV cash windfall should they go down.

Charnley added: “We appreciate that, at the present time, football results and not financial results are what our supporters want to see from us.

“That said, it would be wrong for the club not to acknowledge the submission of our accounts for the period July 2014 to June 2015.

“We understand, however, that what you want to see are results on the pitch.”