Former Wycombe Wanderers player Dennis Greene has been branded "reckless" by a judge after he injured a bouncer in a drunken rage.

Greene, now manager at Ryman League Windsor and Eton FC, was thrown out of High Wycombe's popular Time nightclub, after harassing female customers during a visit in January last year, a court heard last week.

Appearing at Aylesbury Crown Court on Friday, a jury of ten heard how 37-year-old Greene, who had no previous convictions for violence, reacted angrily when forced to leave, punching a glass panel and catching doorman Anthony Beales.

David Wales, prosecuting, said Mr Beales was struck in the face and required three stitches to a split lip.

Bouncers inside the Octagon Parade nightspot had been forced to wrestle Greene to the ground and restrain him while police were called, following complaints from upset women.

Greene, of Squires Close, Bishops Stortford, Herts, was a member of the Wycombe Wanderers squad that won promotion to the Football League in the 1992/93 season under Martin O'Neill.

Greene who had two seasons with the Chairboys before leaving in 1993, denied assaulting Mr Beales and causing actual bodily harm, but a jury of six men and four women found him guilty at the end of a three-day trial on Friday.

The jury foreman told the court a decision had been made on the grounds that Greene had committed a reckless act and not on the basis he intended to punch Mr Beales.

In ordering Greene to pay a £1,000 fine and £530 costs, Judge Daniel Serota QC, said: "We see too much violence on our streets as a result of alcohol. You smashed a window and caused injury to Mr Beales because, I am quite satisfied, you had far too much too drink and you probably got wound up outside the club."

He added: "People who commit offences of violence in public when they have been drinking often expect to be sent to prison, but the jury has made it clear that they regard this offence as one which was committed by you recklessly, not that you went out of your way to punch Mr Beales."

Greene told Midweek he did not wish to comment on the case or the verdict.

January 21, 2003 16:30