A PLAYER with an amateur football team has gone on trial at Carlisle Crown Court charged with breaking an opponent's jaw in an off-the-ball incident.

Paul Carradice, 39, of Watchgate, Kendal, had just come on as a substitute winger for table-topping Kendal County Reserves when, it is alleged, he struck Stuart Airey in the face.

Mr Airey, right-back for Penrith side Wetheriggs, suffered a double fracture to his jaw.

Carradice has pleaded not guilty to causing him grievous bodily harm in the incident on the Castleton playing fields, Penrith, on October 30, 1999.

In evidence Mr Airey said that, five minutes from the end of the game, with the score at 2-2, Carradice kicked him.

"I turned round and swore at him and kicked him on the shin," he said.

"Because he kicked me, I just gave him a kick back."

Mr Airey said he then turned to walk away, but Carradice came up and hit him on the jaw.

It was only later that he realised he had been seriously hurt.

Prosecuting counsel William Staunton said that, though some physical contact was to be expected in a football match, what Carradice did went beyond what was lawful.

"There will be contact, there will be niggles and there will be tackles from behind," he said, "but to turn around and raise one's hands to another player is clearly not in the rules of the game and can amount to criminal assault."

The trial continues.