Blackburn Rovers and Burnley fans clashed outside a pub after 20 Clarets supporters 'looking for a fight' got off a mini bus chanting 'Su-Su-Suicide'.

Six Blackburn fans have pleaded guilty to affray over the incident around the Station Hotel, Cherry Tree, on derby day, while another man has gone on trial.

Prosecutor Francis McIntee told the jury police had been 'fearful' that 'animosity, hatred and simmering rivalry' would spill over into violence.

A huge operation had kept supporters apart during, and immediately after, the lunchtime derby clash at Ewood Park.

But at 6pm on Sunday, October 18, officers received a call from a woman who had seen a minibus pull up in the Feniscowles area.

She told officers 22 Burnley fans got out, urinated on her wall, and then set off down Preston Old Road, chanting songs related to the 'notorious hooligan element' of the club.

They were met by a police cordon preventing them from reaching the Station Hotel, which was packed with Blackburn Rovers fans.

But up to 50 people stood outside the pub and in the beer garden 'responded by joining in the disorder', the court heard.

Mr McIntee said: “The Burnley fans came looking for a fight.

"Equally a number of Blackburn fans were keen to oblige but that was prevented by police.

“That caused Blackburn fans to divert their aggression, aimed at Burnley, and turn it on the police."

Officers came under attack from pint glasses and bottles from the pub's beer garden, with a group of around 30 Rovers supporters chanting 'Youth, Youth'.

Police eventually got the crowd back inside the premises and officers used their batons to smash the remaining pint glasses and bottles so they couldn't be thrown as weapons.

Preston Crown Court heard Ian Mitchell, 45, of Caltha Drive, Blackburn, is alleged to have tried to push past the police cordon to get to the Burnley fans, shouting: “Come on, we've been waiting for this all day.”

He was forced back with a baton and his pint glass smashed.

Mitchell denies a charge of affray, claiming the police have mistakenly identified him as the man trying to push past Chief Inspector Kevin Evans.

At the start of the trial, the crown offered no evidence against his co-accused, Kenneth Lysons, 21, of Selborne Street, Blackburn, and Judge Graham Knowles QC directed the jury to find him not guilty.

Six other men pleaded guilty to affray.

They are: David Comberbach, 41, of Bank Hey View, Paul Rushton, 46, of Boxwood Drive, Joshua Riley, 21, of Solway Avenue, Jordan Hoyle, 19, of Park Farm, and Samuel Hindle, 18, of Shadsworth Road, all Blackburn, and Christopher Sutton, 23, of Meadow Gardens, Rishton, all admitted a charge of affray.

Mr McIntee said: "The prosecution do not suggest the people arrested (Blackburn fans) were acting together in any pre-arranged manner.

“The behaviour of each of the persons simply served to add to the volatility of the situation.”

Francis McIntee, prosecuting, said Riley was 'shouting, gesticulating and using aggressive body language', Comberbach was 'pushing and pulling an officer' while they were carrying out an arrest, while Hindle and Rushton were said to be progressing towards the group of Burnley fans 'gesticulating in an inflammatory way'.

Their cases were adjourned for sentencing at a later date.

They will be joined by Samuel Bowen, 26, of Melville Drive, Blackburn, who pleaded guilty to affray at an earlier date.

A statement weas read to the court from Station landlord of eight years, John Southworth.

Mr Southworth said he had been open since 10am for home supporters only, but felt the atmosphere change at 6pm and sensed 'there was going to be trouble'.

He said he had 'never experienced anything like it in my life' and that the incident was 'overwhelming'.