A CLARETS fan suffered a bleed on the brain in an unprovoked attack after getting the wrong train home from an away match.

Robert Lindsay, 25, was knocked unconscious after being felled by an unexpected blow in Nuneaton town centre, just hours after Burnley’s draw with Leicester FC.

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Today his family are hoping police can catch his attacker, after enduring a ‘horrendous’ wait to see whether Robert had suffered a permanent brain injury.

He was with seven friends, travelling back from Burnley’s game at the King Power Stadium, when they boarded the wrong train at the city’s railway station.

The supporters, who were not said to have been wearing Burnley colours, left the service at Nuneaton and were told they would have to wait the best part of an hour for the next service north to Manchester.

But Robert was attacked just moments after leaving The Crown pub, just a short distance from the station, and is thought to have lost consciousness before he even hit the ground.

His mother Sandra Fegan said: “He walked out of the pub, there was nothing said, and this guy smacked him.

“He knocked him unconscious and that was why he suffered such serious injuries.”

Initially Robert was taken to the town’s George Eliot Hospital and kept in overnight but discharged the following day and had to make his own way back to East Lancashire.

But his mother remained concerned with his condition and went with him on Sunday to Burnley General Hospital. She insisted on a CT scan being undertaken, which identified the bleed on the brain, and he was transferred to the Royal Blackburn Hospital.

Sandra said further tests had revealed that Robert had not suffered any major neurological problems but he is still being kept under observation.

She added: “This wasn’t anything to do with them being football fans - they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“Now we just want the police to catch whoever did this so another family does not have to go through what we have. It has been absolutely horrendous.”

The family reported the incident originally to Lancashire Police, who are understood to be working with their colleagues in Nuneaton on the case.

A Warwickshire Police spokesman confirmed that the assault was being investigated and an appeal for witnesses had been made in the area.

Investigating officers are waiting to review CCTV footage of the incident, to see if this will help to identify Robert’s attacker.