FOOTBALL hooligans have heaped more shame on the Shakers.

Four travelling Bury fans were arrested and charged with a number of public order offences after violence flared between rival supporters following the club's match at York City on Saturday.

Three home fans have also been charged and all those arrested will appear before York magistrates on Friday.

Bosses of the Gigg Lane outfit have been left reeling by the arrests and say they have again been let down by a minority of fans away from home.

The weekend clash comes a week after Bury FC launched a police-led manhunt for a small group of supporters who have been hurling racial and personal abuse at their players and their families during away games.

Saturday night's violence involved 30 to 40 supporters who clashed in a pub near York railway station. Fighting broke out and several missiles, including pool balls and bottles, were thrown.

One eyewitness said: "It was like the OK Corral. The police looked as though they were struggling to control it because there were so many people fighting."

Police chiefs in York have laid most of the blame for the violence on a section of home supporters. Only a week earlier, officers made 13 arrests before York's home game against Hartlepool.

Chief Superintendent John Lacy said: "If anybody thought that football hooliganism was declining, they need only look at York City in the last couple of matches, including against Bury, where 20 arrests have been made in streets outside the ground."

Bury FC spokesman Mr Gordon Sorfleet told the Bury Times: "Just when we are trying to get things on and off the field sorted, we then get a minority of so-called Bury fans who have heaped further shame on our club.

"We have been let down again and everyone here is disappointed."

If convicted, the Bury supporters could be given nationwide bans from football grounds by the courts, and Shakers chiefs have vowed to kick the offenders out of Gigg Lane.