OFFICIALS at Sunderland Football Club are to meet police to discuss tightening security following fighting between rival fans at the weekend's match with Middlesbrough.

The club is anxious to avoid any repetition of the violence that marred Saturday's game when arch rivals Newcastle visited the Stadium Of Light in April.

A club spokeswoman said: "The club works very closely with the police to plan for all matches and reviews its operations before and after every game.

"The club considers any incident of anti-social behaviour totally unacceptable and will not tolerate this in the stadium."

Trouble flared between rival supporters on Saturday, after pockets of Middlesbrough fans sneaked into the Sunderland main stand.

Violence erupted midway through the first half of the tense match, when Sunderland - facing relegation from the Premiership - went two goals down after less than 30 minutes.

Boro fans taunted the Sunderland supporters, with chants such as "you're going down" and "you're on your way to Grimsby".

Police made about 30 arrests, following skirmishes both inside and outside the Stadium of Light.

The Teesside club was originally allocated only 1,300 tickets at Sunderland's 49,000-seater ground, on the advice of police. Later, a further 700 were released.

Rob Nichols, editor of Boro fanzine Fly Me To The Moon, said the initial small allocation had driven Teessiders to look elsewhere, including posing as Sunderland fans or buying seats from ticket agencies.

"It was a big game and of course fans were desperate to get there," he said. "It would have been a good idea to give us the full allocation at the start.

"Any sort of violence is to be abhorred and it is horrible to see it in a football ground."

A Sunderland spokeswoman said: "There were several instances of visiting fans having obtained tickets for home areas on Saturday and a number of Middlesbrough supporters were removed and relocated to the visitor's section for safety reasons.

"The stadium has 86 CCTV cameras and the club, along with the police, will continue studying footage from all cameras to identify offenders in the coming week.

"The strongest possible action will be taken to prosecute individuals guilty of anti-social behaviour as well as banning them from the Stadium of Light."