A BACUP Borough FC footballer has been suspended and faces a possible lifetime ban after a referee appeared to be assaulted during a game.

Action was taken immediately by the West View club and defender Gary Lloyd must now await a Lancashire FA hearing into the matter.

The player, who only signed in February, was sent off just 20 minutes into the North West Counties League division two clash at Stone Dominoes.

Minutes later a man ran on to the pitch and appeared to lunge at referee Mike Shaw, a police constable from Macclesfield.

Lloyd, from Salford, was suspended immediately by Bacup and the case will be heard by the Lancashire Football Association where he could face a five-year, seven-year or life-time ban.

A spokesperson from the North West Counties League said: "In normal circumstances a player would be suspended immediately from all football until the Lancashire FA hear his case."

The Lancashire FA commented: "We haven't received the referee's report yet. We expect to get it in the next few days."

Bacup manager Brent Peters, who was in the dug-out and didn't see the full incident, said: "Gary is suspended by the club and will not put on a Bacup shirt until the Lancashire FA has fully investigated the incident.

"Gary is gutted. We will have to wait and see what the referee says in his report now."

The Bacup chief signed Lloyd - who has been something of a star on the field for Borough - on the advice of his skipper Ian McClelland.

He said: "The players were getting increasingly frustrated by the stop-start nature of the game.

"The referee wasn't allowing for anything even though there wasn't a bad tackle on the pitch.

"Then there was a challenge in the middle of the park and Gary, who wasn't involved, came to protest about it as the ref said our player had taken the man when it seemed a fair challenge.

"Gary asked, after listening to the referee, if he could have his say and the referee must have told him no and then showed him a yellow card.

"He then swore at the referee and the referee showed a red card.

"He went into the dressing room, Frank Manning our secretary took him in, and then a couple of minutes later a lad came onto the pitch.

"I thought it was just a spectator as he had a different top on. I couldn't see properly what happened but someone said the lad tried to throw a punch, I don't know."

The referee abandoned the game after the incident but officials from both clubs both spoke to him and five minutes later he agreed to carry on. Bacup were 1-0 down at the time but went on to lose 6-0.