THE sacking of former manager David Flitcroft and his staff cost Barnsley almost £500,000.

The club have announced a loss of £2,070,734 for the year ending May 31, 2014 in a new audit.

"A considerable factor in the loss was paying off David Flitcroft and six of his coaching staff which cost us nearly half a million pounds," chief executive Ben Mansford told the Chronicle.

"The figures are not ideal but we feel we are much more commercially savvy and making progress off the pitch. We are getting value into the club with our signings and now have far more saleable assets than a year ago."

Also apparent in the accounts is the continued reliance on owner Patrick Cryne. The club is more than £3million in debt to Cryne, who donated £840,000 during 2013/14 and has guaranteed an overdraft of just under £2million, which the Reds were more than £500,000 into by May 31 last year.

While the club's turnover increased by just under £250,000 from the previous year, the increase in costs was more than £1.3million with the wage bill up by £973,875 to £8,671,264. Chairman Maurice Watkins, who signed off on the report, cites the increased wages as another major factor in the loss and says that the extra money was spent to 'reflect the calibre of talent registered with the club in order to compete in the Football League Championship.' Despite this investment, the Reds picked up 16 fewer points than the previous season and were relegated to League One.

Watkins and Mansford joined in the first few months of the year the audit covers and promised an increase in the quality of the signings. The duo, and Cryne, let Flitcroft dish out lucrative contracts and spend around £600,000 on the likes of Dale Jennings and Chris O'Grady, while Barnsley received £400,000 for players, notably Scott Golbourne. There was then a second wave of signings and the paying off of unwanted players in January after Flitcroft was sacked and replaced by Danny Wilson.

The club made a relatively small loss of £140,000 on their 'player trading' compared with a huge profit the previous year due mainly to the sale of John Stones to Everton for an estimated £3million – all of which was included in the 2012/13 accounts – and an FA Cup run which earned £1million.

The audit cites two 'main risks' which are the threat of relegation to League Two, which would reduce revenue further, and the reliance on Cryne. Barnsley are expecting to report further losses for 2014/15 year when the next audit is published in 12 months' time.

They are also battling to comply with League One's Salary Cap Management protocol which lets them spend 75 per cent of their turnover on players this campaign and 60 per cent from next season onwards.

The Reds are missing out on more than £4million in contributions from the Football League following their relegation and the reduced revenue from ticket sales and television money is likely to contribute to a £6million hit.

The staff who left with Flitcroft were coaches Martin Scott and Guy Proctor and scout Guy Forrest. Assistant Micky Mellon and coaches Ian Willcock and Jon Lucas departed later in the year.