Violence went into extra-time in the Herts Senior

Violence went into extra-time in the Herts Senior Football League when a linesman floored a player with a punch, a jury heard today (Monday).

The final whistle following a ‘fiery’ game did nothing to end grudges as home side Kimpton Rovers went down 5-4 to Cheshunt.

Two players had already been sent for an early bath by the referee for a mid-pitch brawl during the game when John Lane is alleged to have committed his own red card offence.

London’s Southwark Crown Court heard the Cheshunt official was already in a bad temper having been taunted over his decisions by a group of youths supporting Kimpton.

Lane, 50, admits lashing out ‘instinctively’ but claims it was in self-defence after going to rescue a Cheshunt winger, his son, from the midst of a ‘melee’ of players on the touchline as the teams trooped off towards the changing rooms.

The defendant, of Abercorn Gardens, Chadwell Heath, Romford, denies assaulting Colin Welsh on March 10, occasioning actual bodily harm.

Alan Landsbury, prosecuting, said Lane claimed he had gone to intervene when he saw his son in trouble and was struck from behind.

‘He swung around and swung out,’ said the barrister.

‘He accepts he hit the person, and that must have been Mr Welsh, but essentially says he acted in self-defence, he was hit and lashed out.

‘

But Mr Landsbury told the court: ‘The prosecution say this was a deliberate act.

He was not provoked and did not think he was in any danger.

‘In fact he had got himself into a temper during the course of the game – he accepts he was not in the best of moods by the end of the game – the prosecution say in the melee by the touchline he just lost it and lashed out.

‘

Kimpton defender Dane Truscott said he was collecting corner flags when he saw a Cheshunt player abusing a group of youths supporting the home side – and in a colourful exchange advised the player the game was over.

He then spotted a mixed group of players ‘arguing and shouting’ and as he approached the ‘commotion’ saw his team mate punched in the face by the linesman, falling to the ground.

The fullback admitted his side were not happy with the result but denied they were upset by Lane’s decisions from the touchline.

He said the atmosphere deteriorated during the match as Cheshunt players were ‘intimidating’ and ‘slagging off’ his side with a series of insults.

But he denied Kimpton players aggressively surrounded the Cheshunt winger, who had earlier exposed his team’s defence.

The trial continues.

ends