A PUB landlord who attacked rival football supporters on a train has been locked up for what a judge described as his “disgraceful” behaviour.

Craig Hamilton, who ran the Pemberton Arms, in Haswell, County Durham, was returning from a Sunderland match in Wigan when he confronted Leeds United followers in a rail carriage.

Two of the three friends had been to the Yorkshire club’s clash with Swansea City and were returning to their homes in the Stockton area.

As the train approached Darlington station at 10pm on September 11 last year, Teesside Crown Court heard how drunken Hamilton, 34, snarled: “I’m Sunderland – I hate Leeds . . . I’ll fight any one of you now, one on one.”

He pushed Carl Bellerby over, punched David Hunton in the face and kicked him in the stomach, and dragged Mike English off his seat.

CCTV cameras on board the train caught Hamilton kicking and stamping on 49-yearold Mr English.

Hamilton was arrested when the train stopped.

Mr Hunton, 29, suffered a broken nose in the attack, Mr English had a bruised and grazed left eye, and Mr Bellerby, 29, was unhurt. Hamilton, of Salters Lane, Haswell, near Peterlee, east Durham, admitted affray and was jailed for 12 months by Judge Peter Fox.

The court heard that while he was on bail for the train trouble, he was involved in a nightclub brawl after another match in January.

Hamilton was fined £300 for his part in the violence in Chubby’s Bar, in Blackpool, only hours after his team had beaten the Seasiders 2-1.

Shaun Dryden, mitigating, urged Judge Fox not to lock up father-to-be Hamilton because it would impact on his family and business.

He said the licensee employed ten people and did the work of two himself, and if he was jailed more staff would have to be taken on.

Hamilton had been drinking all day and Mr Dryden said the violence was out of character, despite him having an earlier conviction for affray.

Judge Fox told Hamilton: “It is not my present concern whether you should be permitted to hold a licence for licensed premises.

“But one has to wonder whether you are a fit and proper person at present to hold such a responsibility.”