A man has been barred from all professional soccer matches for a year and four more were fined following incidents at Saturday's game between York City and Darlington.

The five, all from Darlington, saw very little of the match because they had been drinking before they got into the Bootham Crescent ground and were arrested either before or shortly after it started, prosecutor David Garnett told York magistrates.

They were not released until several hours later.

Magistrates warned the four still able to go to football matches that only their quiet behaviour and the fact they were arrested before they got to the stands had saved them from a ban.

They warned that the York Bench had a strict attitude towards football trouble. The courts had weeded it out and intended to keep it that way.

The five had pleaded guilty to being drunk at a football match.

Jobless Stephen James Johnson, 26, of Skipton Moor Close, Darlington, was caught drinking a bottle of beer in the stands with his arm round a friend and singing ten minutes before the kick-off.

He told magistrates he had only been to two football matches in his life. He was banned from all Premiership and Football League grounds for all matches for 12 months and fined £75 with £55 costs.

The justices heard that shortly before the kick-off, a policewoman watched Paul Young, 23, of Balmoral Road, Darlington, walk unsteadily through the turnstiles, and arrested him.

He told magistrates he had been celebrating the birth of a friend's son by drinking between five and ten pints and had not realised it was an offence to go to a soccer match under the influence. He was fined £100 with £55 costs.

Later, police arrested Michael Aidan Gallagher, 26, of Stonehaven Way, Darlington, after he had drunk about five pints.

He told magistrates he regularly drank before away games and nothing like this had happened to him before. He was fined £150 with £55 costs.

Chay Wallace Calvert, 26, of Banktop Cottages, Heworth Place, Darlington, tried to get into the match after drinking eight pints. He was fined £150 with £55 costs.

Matthew Robert Howe, of Station Terrace, Middleton St George, near Darlington, was stopped as he tried to enter after drinking five or six pints. He was fined £175 with £55 costs.

The case against a sixth man from Darlington was adjourned until next month.

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