A gang of four drunks who broke a man's nose in a brawl outside an Oxford nightclub have failed in a bid to shorten their jail terms.

The four men, two from Oxford, one from south London and a Southampton student, were jailed for six months each at Oxford Crown Court in April after admitting assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

All four appeared at the Court of Appeal yesterday, but had their sentences upheld by Lord Justice Scott Baker, Mr Justice Burnett and Judge Jeremy Roberts QC.

Mr Justice Burnett told the court how the four - Surfraz Nawaz, 26, of Netherwoods Road, and Sajad Tasib, 22, of Wilkins Road, both in Oxford, Saeed Akhtar, 21, of Derby Road, Southampton, and Sajid Anwar, 28, from Somerset Gardens, Lewisham - had been drinking heavily on the night of the assault.

They and their victim, Basem Alkhattabi, had all been in Oxford's Bubbly Bar nightclub on September 9, 2007, before they came to blows outside.

Tasib started the early hours altercation, getting involved in a slanging match with Mr Alkhattabi, before slapping him in the face.

Mr Alkhattabi responded with a slap of his own, but was then subjected to a vicious beating at the hands - and feet - of all four of the men.

The court heard that Anwar dragged him across to the other side of the road and kicked him in the face, while Nawaz kicked him three times in the back, Akhtar kicked him twice in the face and Tasib punched and kicked him.

All four men admitted responsibility for the attack.

Their barrister, Steve Hosking, said all four men were "good family men" who had acted "out of character" due to alcohol.

Dismissing their appeals, Mr Justice Burnett said: "We are concerned with an offence which did not cause minor injury, although, happily, the injury is likely to have been non-permanent.

"We do not consider it appropriate to describe a broken nose as a minor injury."