A MASSIVE policing operation costing £50,000 and involving 250 officers was mounted to prevent trouble between rival Burnley and Stoke fans in and around Turf Moor.

And officers today revealed that the move had prevented suspected far-right extremists meeting up with Stoke City fans to cause trouble in the town on Saturday.

Stoke City hooligans have become known as one of the most notorious set of organised thugs in England and were partly blamed for the Oldham race riots after their team played in the town last year.

Burnley has been on alert to combat racists since its own race-related riots last summer.

A spokesman for Pennine Division's Football Planning Office said: "The Stoke fans have a reputation certainly for being one of the worst.

"I think that is well known. There were a number of arrests at the game, but we haven't been able to collate all the information yet.

"We did make arrests for the usual behaviour associated with football matches, but nothing on the scale that we expected."

The total cost of the security operation is thought to be in the region of £50,000.

Burnley play Millwall at home tomorrow whose fans are banned from the match after fears of football related violence.

Several Stoke fans travelled to Accrington in mini-buses before completing their journey to Burnley.

In Accrington several suspected far-right hooligans were prevented from boarding a train at the town's railway station.

The men had been spotted earlier in the day drinking in the town's Castle Hotel.

A spokesman for Accrington Police said: "The Stoke fans had mini buses parked in Accrington. We escorted them back to their buses and they then left."

Landlord of the Castle Hotel in Whalley Road, Phil Balaam, said: "I had about 50 skinheads in the pub on Saturday afternoon.

"There were Americans, Germans, someone from Spain and some obviously British. I asked them what they were doing here."

Phil, 31, continued: "They said they were just meeting up and they didn't know where they were going.

"I heard there was a lot of police presence at the railway station. They came in here at about four in the afternoon and stayed for a couple of hours.

"They didn't cause any trouble while they were here," he added.

Clubs can hire a number of stewards for the same price as one police officer. It costs around £250 each for a typical five-hour police shift at a match.

Under the regulations, clubs pay only for the officers on duty inside their stadium. The police force picks up the bill for all security around the ground and at nearby pubs, stations and town centres.

Burnley will have to pay for just 25 of the 250 police on duty at the weekend. They will pay only £5,000-£6,000, even though the total cost of the security operation was

estimated at £50,000.

For their game against Blackpool last week, only 10 police officers supervised the 7,500-strong crowd.