A Keighley man who took part in violent clashes between football fans on the day of his stag party has been jailed.

Joshua Gornall, 22, of Northview, Eastburn, Keighley, kissed his pregnant wife in the public gallery before being sentenced to two years and three months in jail, with an eight-year banning order, for his part in the clashes in October 2009.

He was among 12 members of Burnley’s infamous hooligan firm the Suicide Squad who have been jailed for a total of 32 years for their part in violence which erupted after Burnley’s first Premier League clash with Blackburn.

Experienced officers described the derby day scenes outside The Station pub in Cherry Tree, Blackburn, as ‘like something out of Braveheart’ as Burnley fans came ‘roaring, screaming and grunting’ up the hill to clash with rival Rovers supporters.

Police intercepted and Judge Graham Knowles QC admitted: “It was the closest of close-run things that the police didn’t find themselves sandwiched between two groups of drunken, violent and hostile men intent on confrontation.”

Judge Knowles said the Burnley gang’s actions were about the ‘glorification of violence’ and that its ringleaders Andrew Porter, Daniel Tempest, Paul Hartley and Mark Hamer, got ‘status and pleasure’ from it.

He said evidence during four trials of supporters showed members of ‘Blackburn Youth’ had got wind of a planned confrontation with the Suicide Squad hours after the game had finished.

The ‘chosen battleground’ was The Station pub in Preston Old Road, with Burnley fans travelling there by taxi at around 5pm on October 18, 2009.