A 26-YEAR-OLD man described by a judge as a talented and aspiring footballer has been warned that his “card is marked.”

Daniel Roberts of Tyddyn Llan, Llanengan, Pwllheli, admitted causing grievous bodily harm after having accused Gavin Gwyn Jones of having a fling with his partner a week previously.

He was given a 10-month jail sentence, suspended for a year, with 150 hours unpaid work and 10 days of rehabilitation activity - and must pay Mr Jones £1,500 compensation at the rate of £200 a month.

Ryan Rothwell, prosecuting at Caernarfon Crown Court, related how the victim who used to play football with Roberts, had been felled by two punches to the face outside the Boathouse pub at Pwllheli late at night on 16 December.

It happened after Roberts had invited him outside for a talk, because it was noisy in the pub.

Mr Jones suffered multiple fractures to small bones, including to the eye socket, where a plate had to be inserted by surgery.

In a statement to police, Roberts claimed he was “being wound up by the complainant, who was smirking and boasting” about having been with the defendant’s girlfriend.

The defendant, an electrician, had texted the victim saying: “I saw red, sorry.”

Ffion Tomos, defending, said: “He’s been in a relationship since school and they haven’t broken up. Fuelled by alcohol he had acted completely out of character, a thing he deeply regrets and something that has brought shame on him in a small, close knit community.”

Miss Tomos said Roberts was a member of the local soccer club and a family man living with his partner. He had apologised to Mr Jones and they had shaken hands.

Roberts was highly regarded and she produced three testimonials, one of them from Aled Jones, head of Ysgol Nefyn.

Passing sentence Judge Huw Rees said it was a cowardly attack after he had invited Mr Jones outside the pub on the pretext he wished to talk.

The judge said Roberts was not a violent man.

“But there is a factor in your offending which is of concern, that of excessive drinking at weekends.”

Judge Rees added that to use a football phrase with which he’d be familiar - “in the next 12 months your card is marked.”