Wolves Fans' Parliament were told at their latest meeting last night that the club's newly-released balance sheet represented 'a very healthy' picture.

The annual accounts show Wolves made a loss of almost £4.1m in the year ending May 31, 2008, but this was largely due to swquad-strengthening - underlined by the purchase of ten players, including Matt Jarvis, Kevin Foley, Sylvan Ebanks-Blake and David Edwards.

And the profit of £0.8m disclosed 12 months ago included a profit on the sale of players of almost £6.1m compared to one of only £300,000 in 2007-08.

Members heard from Wolves' Finance Manager John Kelly that turnover was up to £18.2m from £15.9m and gates rose to 23,500 from 21,000. "We have net assets of £66.3m and we're in a strong position," he said. "We would have lost about £5m the year before had it not been for player sales."

Chief Executive Jez Moxey, outlining that the figures 12 months ago included the sales of Joleon Lescott for £5m and Seol for £1m, said: "Our balance sheet is extremely healthy because of Sir Jack Hayward and Steve Morgan. But we're running the business to try to be successful as a football team which is why we sometimes get losses like this. In trying to achieve, this club has always spent more money than it could earn."

Jez responded to Roger Fellows' argument that transfer activity made it difficult to assess what a club's real trading position was by adding: "Players like Kightly and Hennessey are not shown in the balance sheet as having any value."

John said around £30m of the club's £66m reserves was from Steve Morgan before Jez, to a question from Chris Cox about how much of a loss was expected when Steve took over, added: "We were expecting a loss. The whole point of getting him in was to invest in players and hopefully give us success. This money has been invested sensibly and methodically, and the team has got better with each transfer window."

Gerry Collins was told by the Chief Exec that payment methods in transfer deals varied, with 50 per cent down and 50 per cent 12 months later typical. But some fees could be paid up front and some spread over three years.

Mike Taylor asked if falling interest rates would affect the investment policy. "We're not into risky speculation on the cash balance," Jez said. "We're not tying it up long-term - it's in a safe area gaining interest and where we can get at it."

Following an enquiry from Richard Harries about transfer fees no longer being disclosed by Wolves, Jez repeated the club's justification: "We have a policy saying forget about the money. Let's just view and judge what we see rather than have some newspaper saying this player cost £2m and judging him on that basis. I'm really passionate about that."

Richard suggested there was a popular misconception that £60m would be earmarked for new players in the event of promotion and Roger Fellows said the club had previously been in liquidation and should not spend in a way that threatens them again.

Wilf Hadley congratulated Wolves for 'doing it the right way, not by throwing the cheque-book at everything.' Jez replied: "We said we'd find the very best people (after Sir Jack). I don't think we could have got a better owner than Steve. Take solace from the fact that we have an owner absolutely dedicated to making this club the best we can be."

Jez told James Rogers that there was no hard and fast rule about who paid loan players' wages; sometimes they were subsidised by his parent club, sometimes the borrowing club paid them 100 per cent and in others there was a loan fee. And he described the borrowing of Marlon Harewood as 'a really positive move - but simply a loan, with nothing else agreed."

John Pike asked who kept track of how many games a player had played when appearance-related increments were built in. "It's incumbent on the club who are owed but the Football League and Premier League monitor it," Jez added.

REVIEW OF PREVIOUS MINUTES

Parliament Chairman Matt Grayson said ticket office staff's efforts at checking on the use of disabled parking spaces had revealed little abuse. The matter, raised at a previous meeting by Darren Cash, would continue to be monitored, though, and the club weren't complacent.

Gerry Collins said his grumbles at one game about parking on the Steve Bull Stand side of Molineux had appeared to be because of a stand-in person being on the gate.

STADIUM MATTERS

The meeting was attended by Steve Sutton, who has been with Wolves since 1993 and served as Stadium and Safety Manager for the last four years. He told members that the leaflets showing 'The Wolves Code' had brought about a 50 per cent decrease in standing when first distributed.

Jez Moxey called Steve another quality member of the Molineux staff and pointed out that the club were up for two awards at a dinner on Sunday - Community Club of the Year and Family Club of the Year. He said Wolves' stewards were outstanding - something Gerry Collins agreed with after relating an incident at Nottingham Forest on Saturday when a thrown coin hit a Wolves fan on the head and he protested so much that he was ejected. Georgina Savage said there were many incidents at Forest, like spitting.

Mark Cadman said some Wolves stewards worked at away games but Steve said that was only at the request of host clubs who agreed to pay them.

Muriel Bates, however, said she had had to ask a steward to address the problem of spectators returning late after half-time in a Molineux corporate area. Jon Maslen-Jones said that problem wasn't confined to the corporate areas.

Steve Sutton said there were 350 stewards at home games and, while there would always be some problems, the quality of them was continually rising. Kulbinder Kular asked if Wolves were at full capacity for stewards and turnstile operators and was told: "We employ 385 for the 320 match-day positions, plus another 40 who we bring in to man exit gates. We also have a waiting list. We like to get 75 per cent attendance and are running at about 82 per cent, although a good portion have done 100 per cent."

Mick Boydell spoke of a young child falling over near the toilets in the Billy Wright Stand Upper and the panic to get him back on his feet. He asked if stewards could make sure people used the right entrance and exit doors for the toilets. "We're not blessed with big concourses but we'll look at that," Steve said.

And to a question from John Meaney about searching fans entering Molineux, Steve said: "It depends on what we think is the game's risk. Searching by discretion can be discriminatory so we now use other ways."

Ryan Leister said the number of fans walking in front of his seat on the front row of the Jack Harris Stand was a problem and James Fielden asked why some clubs would offer Wolves fans unreserved seating at their grounds. Steve answered: "It does help fans who want to sit at the front but we've only done it here for Cardiff fans."

Steve explained to Jon Maslen-Jones that kick-off was delayed for ten 10 minutes at the home game with Norwich after some paving outside the Steve Bull Stand seemed to have subsided and it was felt necessary to close some turnstiles. Les Hughes said the stewarding outside that night was poor. Fans were frantic about getting in. Steve said the delay decision was taken ten minutes before kick-off and an announcement was followed by stewards going outside with loud hailers.

Laurence Westwood asked about the seats sectioned off in the upper and lower tiers of the Steve Bull Stand and was told it was a sanction imposed by the local authority following the Reading play-off game in 2003 when objects were thrown from upstairs at visiting fans.

Ryan Leister was told by Jez Moxey that the club would consider bringing back the temporary stand if they were promoted but the area between the Jack Harris and Steve Bull Stands wasn't viable as it was too small.

Steve said a lot of money had been spent on the sound system and it met safety requirements, although, in terms of entertainment, it was behind the times. James Fielden said speakers low down at Stoke seemed to work well - a point Matt Grayson promised would be looked at.

Chris Cox said smoking was worse before half-time than during it, so surely offenders could be challenged? Steve said action was often taken after such acts rather than at the time and that smoke alarms in toilets, where the problem was most serious, had been considered. There were six current bans in progress, he said.

To Gerry Collins' question about the effectiveness of bans, Steve said season tickets were withdrawn and the club had good photo databases and CCTV. "If we catch banned fans in the ground, we ban them for longer," he said.

John Pike asked if the wording on The Wolves Code leaflet could be changed to say that fans flouting the No Smoking ban would be ejected rather than may be. Steve said Wolves were certainly not alone in trying to enforce smoking bans and Jez said other fans could help in the implementation.

Matt Grayson raised the problem of fans persistently standing at Molineux and said that, with the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster approaching, the ultimate sanction for the authorities was for ground capacity to be reduced.

"It's a more serious issue than people think," Jez said. "Clubs have had capacity reduced because of fans not sitting down." Steve said: "It's a condition of the safety licence. We might lose ten per cent of the seating capacity of the Jack Harris - or have restrictions on alcohol sales if the two are deemed to be linked."

Dave Bissell asked why serious offenders couldn't be kicked out but Steve explained that the club had tried to approach the problem in an educational and customer-caring manner.

Georgina Savage joked that men couldn't shout encouragement unless they stood up while Kulbinder Kular argued that sometimes people left their seats to see the ball in the corners. "We accept standing at times of excitement," Steve summed up. "It's persistent standing for no reason than we need to address."

Alan Gripton was told that Molineux Alley had been open for the last couple of games, so fans could now walk round the ground again. Matt said the club would publicise this fact before the next home game.

FOOTBALL REVIEW

Jez Moxey said things were going extremely well but no-one was counting any chickens. He also said the club's other sides were impressing. "We're near the end of the season and need to keep it going," he said.

Rod Palmer argued that not many young lads had broken through in the last couple of years, except goalkeepers, and said there was nothing like a home-grown player to stir a crowd.

Chris Cox said the club had been slow off the mark when they were last promoted and hoped for a speedier response if they go up this time. Jez thanked fans for their excellent backing this season, especially when the chips had been down.

Richard Harries asked if Wolves had a European scouting network and questioned whether it was wise to look only at British-based players if they went up. "For now, we decided to concentrate on British-based players," Jez said. "They immediately buy into the history and you can communicate much easier with them but we have scouts based abroad and our full-time scouts sometimes take in four matches a weekend during trips abroad. We're not anti-foreigner."

Roger Fellows was told that Steve Morgan's increased commitments with Redrow did not affect his Molineux duties while Mike Taylor's question about reserve fixtures prompted the Chief Exec to say: "We're playing them when we want to play them rather than when we have to play them and it's a better alternative than the reserve competition currently open to us. There have been some tremendous games this season."

He then told Wilf Hadley that Matt Murray, Carl Ikeme and George Elokobi all hoped to be fit for the start of pre-season training and explained to Peter Bagley that he didn't expect any negative reaction from existing players to the loan signing of Marlon Harewood with six games left. Les Hughes said a sizeable minority thought Mick McCarthy had his favourites.

Jez answered James Fielden's question about the association with Ujpest by saying he was going to Budapest today with Academy Manager Kevin Thelwell to see the on-loan Scott Malone play tomorrow. He said that the fact two Ujpest players were on trial at Celtic underlined that the Hungarian club's links in Britain weren't exclusively with Wolves.

Martyn Edwards was told that the Southampton game had been moved to Good Friday purely for Sky TV coverage - but that Wolves might be helped by having more time to prepare for the Monday game at Derby as a result.

Jez told Gerry Collins that Jody Craddock was the only senior player out of contract this summer and that nothing had been finalised regarding a pre-season tour. But going to Australia was an option 'at the very start of pre-season.' "It's football-led and it's worth thinking about really seriously," he said.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS:

Roger Fellows asked if those fans who hadn't renewed season tickets were approached. Matt Grayson replied: "Yes, there aren't that many but we'll point out other offers to them."

Muriel Bates said she had collected more than 1,000 signatures in protest against match-day parking in the West Park area and was advised by Jez to hold fire while an approach was considered in the coming weeks.

Jon Maslen-Jones expressed disappointment that Bill Hatton seemed to have been replaced as a Beacon commentator at Wolves games. He said the fact the station also broadcast Albion games live caused difficulty in picking up matches on AM. Matt said Beacon were able to offer a deal to another club if they chose but that the vast majority of Wolves' away games this season had been on FM. It was only home games that went on AM (and only in the event of a fixture clash with WBA), although this point needed to be publicised better. "I've had a lot of emails about Bill," he added. "If Beacon have enough emails, maybe people power kicks in. It's a matter for them. I can only give them the feedback."

Ryan Leister asked if the club might offer free travel to Barnsley for the final Championship away game 'as it would be great to have 8-9,000 of our fans there.' Jez replied: "I feel we've been beaten with a stick because some other club offer free travel but we do a variety of other things. Is it on our radar? Yes. Whether we do it this season, I don't know."

Sally Hanbury was told that a friend wishing to have a dance troupe considered as part of the half-time entertainment should contact the club while Les Hughes criticised the £5 booking fee on season ticket purchases. Jez said all items were sent by recorded delivery but was told Wolves would have been better to put £5 on the price instead.

In answer to a question from Mike Taylor about the need for a loyalty scheme to be held over from this season to combat a scramble for away tickets if the club win promotion, Jez said points weren't carried over but that not all information from 2008-09 would be scrapped.