FOUR football hooligans who joined in a mass brawl that “erupted” in a Bradford city centre pub have been spared jail.

The group were the last of 11 defendants to be sentenced after violence broke out before and after Bradford City’s home derby match against Sheffield United on October 22, 2016.

Prosecutor James Gelsthorpe told Bradford Crown Court that just before 8pm, two Sheffield fans who had been drinking at the bar of The Ginger Goose pub in Market Street were surrounded by a group of around 15 men. One man said to the pair: “It’s time for you to get your train home, get the f**k out of our pub.”

Mr Gelsthorpe said that after one Sheffield fan “got one in first” by headbutting one of the group, “significant violence erupted”, causing “scared and frightened” customers to leave. Punches and kicks were thrown during the fight that followed, with bottles and chairs also hurled across the bar.

The pub’s manager, Jamie Hayes, said in a statement that it was “pure luck” that none of his employees were injured in the melee.

Sean Abbott, 26, of Braine Croft, Bradford, Leo Murphy, 22, of Greenwood Avenue, Bradford, Joshua Stamper, 26, of Stephen Road, Buttershaw, Bradford, and James Taylor, 25, of Gracey Lane, Buttershaw, Bradford, all admitted an offence of affray in connection with the incident.

Mr Gelsthorpe said that Abbott threw a “series of punches” during the brawl, with Murphy barging into the group in an area where a fan was being kicked on the floor.

Taylor was said to have hit someone with a chair, with Stamper throwing “at least one punch” as the fight continued.

The court heard that all the defendants had been drinking heavily on the day of the offence, but had since kept out of trouble and made efforts to “turn their lives around.”

Speaking for Stamper and Taylor, Michael Greenhalgh said: “They accept that this baying mob mentality cannot be tolerated by the courts. They are asking for a chance to show that this was a stupid one-off.”

Judge Neil Davey QC reiterated his stance that “all football-related violence was terrifying and potentially lethal.”

He told the defendants: “People like you get involved for the thrill of violence, usually drunken violence.”

Referring to the “disgraceful” incident in the Ginger Goose, he again described it as “like a scene from a film of a brawl in a wild west saloon.”

Judge Davey said that a combination of the four men’s early guilty pleas and progress in leading law-abiding lives allowed him to “just” draw back from immediate custody.

Murphy was jailed for nine months, Abbott and Taylor for four-and-a-half months, and Stamper for three months. All sentences were suspended for a year, and each defendant ordered to complete 150 hours of unpaid work.