A MAN who said he was attacked with a pool cue case admitted assaulting another man in the same incident and writing aggressive comments about Swindon Town football fans.

Players from two rival pub pool teams clashed in Riley’s in Between Towns Road, Cowley, Oxford, in September.

Edmund Aldworth, who plays for the Blackbird pub in Blackbird Leys, denies a charge of wounding Matthew Challen with intent. Mr Challen represents the Catherine Wheel in Sandford.

On day two of the trial at Oxford Crown Court yesterday, Mr Challen admitted accepting a police caution for assaulting Blackbird player Roger Goodall during the melee.

Under cross-examination from defence barrister David Bright, Mr Challen denied he had headbutted Mr Goodall, stating: “It was a clash of heads. There was not any force in it to cause injury.”

Jurors heard violence erupted at about 11pm after Mr Challen and fellow Catherine Wheel player Rhys Freemire arrived at Riley’s ,where Aldworth was playing pool with Mr Goodall and Kenny Broster.

The Blackbird group was in a private room containing four pool tables when Mr Freemire and Mr Challen, who had played in a cup match at the Catherine Wheel earlier in the evening, arrived.

Jurors heard there was an “exchange of banter” between the two groups before the physical confrontation in one of the main rooms of the club.

Oxford United fan Mr Challen admitted drinking “about eight” pint-sized bottles of cider before the incident, in which he said the 46-year-old defendant struck him “four or five times” to the head and back with his metal cue case.

Under cross-examination, the complainant admitted writing a Facebook status talking about “kicking **** out of the scummers (Swindon Town fans)” but denied being a “tough guy”.

Mr Bright, defending, said of the Riley’s incident: “After the police had arrived were you shouting threats that you would kill Mr Aldworth?”

Mr Challen replied: “Probably, yeah, because my head was smashed open.

Mr Bright added: “The single reason that you got hit with a pool-cue case by Mr Aldworth was, in two words, your violence.”

“No,” the witness responded.

An alternative charge of unlawful wounding was yesterday put to Aldworth, of Wheatley Road, Forest Hill. He denied it.

The trial continues.