‘Mortified and embarrassed’ Ballymena United fans in court after pitch invasion when their team scored last minute winner against Coleraine

As well as ordering 27-year-old Daniel White, Melvin Carleton (58) and 34-year-old Lee Fleming to each pay a £250 fine, District Judge Brian Archer also ordered the trio to be bound over to “conduct themselves in a proper fashion” at any football match they attend.

The prosecution had applied for football banning orders for the three men but the judge said he did not believe the threshold had been met.

At an earlier hearing White, from Parkview in Ballymoney, Carleton from Bannview also in Ballymoney and Fleming, from the Dreen Road in Rasharkin, all entered guilty pleas to invading the pitch on 27 December last year.

Ballymena Magistrates Court heard that in a local derby with Coleraine FC at the Showgrounds, the three defendants let their “enthusiasm and exuberance get the better of them” when Ballymena scored a last minute winner in injury time.

The pitch invasion was recorded and while Fleming and White ran to celebrate with Ballymena’s players, Carleton ran to an injured Coleraine player and “shouts something” at him before Ballymena players push him back.

Defence counsel Francis Rafferty conceded that at almost 60-years-old, Carleton “really should know better” but that all three are “mortified….terribly embarrassed about the way they behaved” during the “foolish” incident.

Indicating that the club were awaiting the outcome of the court proceedings, the lawyer said that White had received a letter from the Ballymena United board of directors that he was not allowed back at the Showgrounds “until further notice.”

“I have no reason to suspect that the others have not been written to in similar fashion,” he told DJ Archer, adding that each man had “written a formal letter of apology” to the club and match officials.

Imposing the fines on the defendants, none of whom attended court, the judge said “there’s no credit to be given for the way the conducted themselves at this match but thankfully, the game wasn’t delayed for very long.”