YORK City defender Chris Fairclough is seeking justice on two fronts.

The City captain is to fight his corner after being hit with a misconduct charge by the Football Association following an alleged incident in the player's tunnel after the Minstermen's 0-0 draw with Darlington.

But the top flight championship winner is also fighting for justice stretching back almost 16 years to the day, when as a young Nottingham Forest player he was robbed of a UEFA Cup final place by an act of bribery

Fairclough, who was a non-playing substitute in the highly-charged clash with the Quakers, has until tomorrow to respond to the FA charge.

City chairman Douglas Craig confirmed Fairclough was sending a letter to FA headquarters setting out his version of events of the alleged incident on April 8.

"There is a dispute as far as Chris Fairclough is concerned with the accuracy of the reports from the match officials and in effect he is denying specifically what is said in those reports," said the chairman

"Whether that will result in a personal hearing is still in the lap of the gods as it were."

But as he awaits his fate over the Darlington incident Fairclough has spoken to the Evening Press for the first time about the bribery case involving Forest and Belgian outfit Anderlecht stretching back to 1984.

An aggrieved Fairclough insists the passage of time has done little to ease the sense of injustice and has joined forces with his ex-team mates in a bid to win compensation following match-rigging allegations that surfaced three years ago.

Forest have been fighting for a settlement since discovering referee Guruceta Muro was bribed prior to the 1984 3-0 UEFA Cup second leg defeat by Anderlecht.

"We got cheated out of it end of story," said Fairclough.

"It does still rankle. You look back and it was 1984 but the earlier you can get a medal of that stature in your career the better.

"But I have never been close since. Never been close."

It was revealed in 1997 that Spanish referee Muro, who died in a car crash ten years earlier, had been paid £18,000 by Anderlecht's former president Constant Vanden Stock.

Back in 1984 Fairclough, who had just turned 20, was an integral part of the Forest team that had beaten the Belgium side 2-0 in the first leg played at the City Ground.

In the return, on April 25, Forest were two goals down when Muro awarded Anderlecht a hotly-disputed penalty after Kenny Swain merely stood by as a Belgian player fell at his feet in the box.

Then Muro disallowed what seemed a legitimate Paul Hart goal, which would have taken Forest through on the away ruling.

Forest and the 15-man squad, including Fairclough, are seeking compensation for money lost on possible transfer fees and the potential damage that it did to their careers.

The news of the payment to the referee was revealed in a Belgian newspaper in 1997. Anderlecht were found guilty of bribery by UEFA and given a one-year ban from European competitions.

"We had suspicions at the end of the game because it was one of those officials who simply would not give us anything," Fairclough said.

"He gave a penalty that wasn't a penalty and then disallowed a goal that was a good goal in the last minute that would have sent us through. It was a joke, the whole thing."

Two of the Forest players seeking justice Garry Birtles and Hans Van Breukelen were re-united in Brussels with former Forest chief executive Phil Soar earlier this month to highlight their case ahead of this year's Euro 2000 tournament being held in Belgium and Holland.

In the latest development, lawyers acting on the club and players' behalf have launched a search for the two linesman - Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira and Filipe Crespo - who officiated in the semi-final.