BURNLEY’S new signing Joey Barton has offered to to meet the fan who threw a bottle at him to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Barton, who was then playing for Queens Park Rangers, was hit by a plastic bottle thrown from the crowd at Turf Moor in October 2013.

MORE TOP STORIES:

And yesterday the 32-year-old Clarets midfielder said he was left ‘gutted’ after the incident - because he didn’t see the bottle coming.

Barton, who signed for Burnley FC on a one-year deal last week, said: “The elephant in the room right now is the guy who threw a coke bottle at my head!

“At some stage I’d probably like to meet him because he’s going to have the opportunity to get me again every other weekend if I don’t.

“I’d probably like to meet him to disarm him and to make sure he doesn’t throw anything else in my direction.

“The thing is it was an unbelievable shot.

“I was more gutted about the fact that he hit me in the head and I didn’t see it coming.

“As a midfielder you like to think that you’ve got good peripheral vision but it turns out I don’t because he hit me on the side of the head and I never saw it coming.

“I hope to meet him and hopefully he won’t throw anything else at me for the rest of the season.”

Following the incident John Pounder, then 26 and of Cedar Avenue, Haslingden, was charged with throwing a missile on to a football pitch.

But after studying CCTV footage the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) dropped the case because they concluded it was impossible to prove who had thrown the bottle.

Speaking after the case was thrown out , A CPS spokesperson said: “John Pounder was initially charged by the police with threatening behaviour and throwing a missile on to a playing field at a football match between Burnley FC and Queens Park Rangers FC.

“After receiving a file of evidence from the police the CPS reviewed all the evidence in the case including the CCTV of the incident and concluded that it was not possible to prove from the CCTV images who had thrown the bottle.

“For that reason there was no longer a realistic prospect of conviction and following consultation with the police the CPS discontinued the case.”

The bottle throw is not the only incident between Clarets fans and Barton that has been brought up in the wake of his signing.

When Burnley took to the streets for an open-top bus parade after clinching promotion to the Premier League in 2014, he used social media to ridicule the club for having such a celebration for finishing second in the table.

Barton said: “If you offend anyone you apologise but it was not meant in that way.

“It was meant at poking a bit of fun at the situation. Most Burnley fans will have realised it was that.”

Burnley Football Club declined to comment.