DARWEN chairman Pete Lamster fears his Northern Premier League side are about to be hit with disciplinary charges arising from their match against Morecambe a fortnight ago.

Lamster said the league executive committee had told him there would be a hearing.

Lamster admitted last week that one of his players had been accused of racial abuse against a Morecambe player - yet he would would not name either player.

"We are aware that Morecambe have made a complaint, now we are waiting for papers from the league. They have told us there will be a hearing," he said.

"We don't even know what is supposed to have been said so we are in the dark until we receive some notification from the league.

"I suspect there will be charges but until we see the papers we don't know what they will be."

Darwen are at home to Leyland Motors tomorrow and are hoping to extend their 21-point lead at the top of the table.

Lamster hopes the fear of a points deduction - one of the possible sanctions hanging over the club relating to the alleged comments - will not affect the players.

"I think the players are professional enough to put it out of their minds. It's obviously a worry, I won't pretend it isn't, but it is difficult to comment without seeing the accusations first. They may not be as bad as people think. We will defend it.

"But the last thing you want when you are going for the title is to lose points, and we don't want to lose key players through suspensions either. We have worked so hard all season and we don't want anything to interfere with that."

CHORLEY are at home to Kendal tomorrow.

Darwen could face charges

in race row