A former member of Reading FC’s reserve team was compared to a ‘caged animal’ by the defender he was said to have knocked to the ground with a pitch-side punch.

Banbury Athletic midfielder Graham Sims, 35, denies causing Hardwick Sports Reserves centre half Gareth Davies actual bodily harm during the match in January 2020, saying he acted in self-defence when he swung a punch at the 37-year-old.

Both men had been given red cards after a scrap that followed a ’50-50 challenge’ in which the players slid for the ball in the 80th minute of the game at Banbury Athletic’s home ground in Easington, Oxfordshire.

Opening the case for the prosecution at Oxford Crown Court yesterday, Alex Radley told the jury Sims and Mr Davies were sent off by the referee.

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He added: “When they left the pitch and walked to the side where their supporters and other people were – there weren’t a great deal of people at the side line – the prosecution say that Mr Davies was standing on the side of the pitch and Mr Sims came up to him and punched him on the side of the face and nose.”

Mr Davies went to the hospital, where a cut to his nose was glued. He was also left with two black eyes, the jury was told.

Giving evidence to the jury yesterday afternoon, Mr Davies said both he and Sims had gone for the same ball in what was known to football aficionados as a ’50-50 challenge’.

“I thought I’d won the ball clean. I didn’t think it was a foul. The other guy reacted,” he said.

“As we were both on the floor I felt someone claw down the back of my head, all down my head.” Mr Davies also claimed to have felt someone bite the top of his head.

Comparing the defendant to a ‘caged animal’ who had ‘lost it’, he said he placed Sims in a headlock.

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Mr Davies, who told jurors he usually played for the Hardwick first team, denied headbutting him on the field or telling Sim as they were walking off the field: “What, you’re going to swing a miss again, you pussy?”

He said Sims had blindsided him as he was talking to one of the linesmen.

Gareth James, Sims’ advocate, cross examined Mr Davies: “You were the aggressor throughout all of this, weren’t you?” The complainant said he wasn’t.

“You’ve gone to headbutt a player on the field of play.” Again, he denied it.

“When that’s failed you’ve grabbed him, put him in a headlock and thrown him to the floor.”

The complainant replied: “I’ve not denied that bit.”

Mr James added: “Afterwards, when you’d been sent off as well as he’s responded, you’ve tried to pick another fight on the centre line as well. You’ve gone over to him aggressively, you’ve caused him to fear you’re about to headbutt him again, haven’t you?” The complainant denied it.

“That’s why he hit you that time. It wasn’t a blow from the side. You weren’t blindsided. You were going straight at him – aggressively – when you got punch.”

Mr Davies replied: “I like to think I would be able to defend myself if I saw it coming.”

It was put to the complainant that he’d been frustrated because Sims, who had previously played for a Reading reserves side, was ‘jealous of his abilities as a footballer’. “Absolutely not,” replied Mr Davies – who, earlier in his evidence, said the opposition side had been losing 6-1.

Asked about a 2007 police caution for assaulting another person in a Banbury nightclub and a 2011 conviction for ABH, Mr Davies told the jury: “It was a long time ago. I was a completely different person back then. I made mistakes, owned up to them.

“Getting in a fight over football is something I would never do. I love playing football but fighting over it? It doesn’t mean that much to me.”

Sims, of Withycombe Drive, Banbury, denies causing actual bodily harm. The trial continues.

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