A FATHER died after he was punched by a soccer team-mate during the club's Christmas night out, a court heard.

Ian Allan, 34, never regained consciousness after he was hit during a fight with a friend, Karl Layton, at the end of a night's drinking.

Layton will be sentenced in June, days before Mr Allan's wife, Caroline is due to give birth.

At Christmas, Mrs Allan and three-year-old daughter Katie kept a round-the-clock bedside vigil.

Last December, Mr Allan, a medical sales representative, had been enjoying a night out with friends from the St Theresa's Catholic Club football team, on Newcastle's Quayside.

But an argument broke out as the friends gathered in a taxi queue outside the Bob Trollop pub, at about 11pm.

Mr Allan was punched and fell to the ground. Other players ran to his aid and he was rushed by ambulance to Newcastle General Hospital.

He was treated in the intensive care unit, but died after six days.

Yesterday Layton, 24, of Spencer Street, Heaton, Newcastle, admitted manslaughter on December 22.

Sentence was originally adjourned until June 14, but as Mrs Allan is due to give birth to the couple's second child that day, the date was changed to June 10.

Judge David Hodson told Layton, who has no previous convictions: "You must appreciate the overwhelming likelihood is a sentence of custody for an offence of this nature."

He was granted bail until the date of the sentence and has surrendered his passport.