Two football fans have to pay legal costs after their appeals against conviction failed, writes Emma Henry.

Alexander Manousos, 21, and Richard Curtis, also 21, appeared at Oxford Crown Court to challenge guilty rulings made against them by Oxford magistrates after a public order incident before a football match.

Manousos and Curtis were found guilty of one charge each of using threatening and abusive words or behaviour under the Public Disorder Act after a trial in September. Curtis was also found guilty of assaulting a policeman.

After the appeal hearing, both the public disorder charges were upheld, but Curtis was cleared of assaulting a policeman.

The charges followed problems which flared around the Somerset public house in Marston Road ahead of an Oxford United v Reading match on March 7 last year.

Manousos, of Tilehurst, and Curtis, of Reading, were arrested as police tried to contain fans outside the pub after the inside was vandalised. There was no suggestion either was involved in that damage.

Judge Patrick Eccles, sitting with two justices, ordered Manousos to pay £170 costs for the appeal, and Curtis £100. In addition, the original public order sentences were upheld. These were 100 hours' community service, a three-year match ban and costs of 150 for both men.

*The case was heard on January 26 but the judge stopped publication of the result pending the outcome of another trial.