An amateur footballer used threatening and abusive behaviour towards a referee during a six-a-side football match, a court heard.

Keith Tucker, 43, of Cartmel Place, Ashton, Preston, admitted the public order offence, at Preston Magistrates' Court on Thursday, August, 11.

He was given a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £175 costs

The incident happened on January 23 at Longridge sports arena, during a match between the Computer Recyclers and the Porn Stars in the Soccer Zone six-a-side soccer league.

Prosecutor, Anna Patterson, said the offence was committed after tempers flared in the second half of the match.

She said Tucker, playing for the Computer Recyclers had pushed Matthew Stonier, playing for the Porn Stars, who in turn retaliated and pushed him back.

"Mr Stonier sought refuge with the referee who was about 20 yards away," she added.

She told the court that Tucker, a father-of-five, had then approached the pair and had abused them with a barrage of expletives.

"The referee, a man in his 60s, was extremely intimidated and afraid, and this caused him to abandon the football match."

Tucker, a computer recycling engineer, was later arrested and charged with a section 5 offence under the Public Order Act 1986.

Defence barrister Andrew Howe, said: "This is a peculiar case, it's unusual for a court to be troubled by people playing football."

He told the court it had been a case of six of one and half a dozen of the other, and that argy bargy in the first half had lead to an incident between Mr Tucker and Mr Stonier in the second half.

"The defendant is sorry himself that he landed himself in this situation, he readily accepts that he overstepped the mark," said Mr Howe.

He added that in a football league of this level this type of offence could be said to be committed on many occasions.