A football fracas which started as "handbags at 40 paces" ended with one player hospitalised for a week and another in the dock.

Wayne Bertie, 29, from Central Wall Road, Canvey, was found guilty of inflicting grievous bodily harm by a jury at Southend Crown Court.

The attack, during a Sunday morning match between Old Southendians and Gifford United on November 5 1995 left Christopher Sorrell with a fractured left cheekbone.

The court heard how four years later he still suffers numbness and discomfort around the face.

Bertie, playing for Gifford United at the Warners Park ground in Southend, became involved in what referee Phillip Esdile described as "pushing and shoving, really just a case of handbags at 40 paces".

Prosecuting John Butcher told the court how Bertie ran to join the melee, threw a punch at one player and then kicked Mr Sorrell, who was on all fours on the field.

Mr Esdile described the kick as having the force "one would use to kick a football" and was "an act which I have never seen before or after".

Bertie accepted he had been involved in the fracas, but only to break it up. He also admitted throwing a few punches and kicks, but purely in self-defence.

He denied kicking Mr Sorrell, saying it was another player from his team who looked similar to him.

Old Southendians player Duncan Raggett said he saw Bertie run towards him on his way to the jostling players. Bertie then took a swipe at him, striking him behind the ear, before running up to Mr Sorrell and kicking him in the head.

Despite defence barrister Benn McGuire reminding the court that a number of other players on the Gifford United side met a very similar description to Bertie, he was found guilty by the jury after nearly two hours of deliberation.

It was also explained to the jury by Judge Frank Lockhart that the fact Bertie had taken up the offer of a round-the-world trip before his initial trial, delaying it by a number of years, was not relevant to the case.

Judge Lockhart remanded Bertie, who has no previous convictions, until January 21 for pre-sentence reports.

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