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Round Two at Chester
A Sports journalist has hit back at Chester boss Stephen Vaughan after a fracas at an awards dinner according to the Chester Evening Leader.
"You hear about hooligans in the stands but you don?t expect them to be running football clubs," said David Emery, editor of the Non-League Newspaper.
Mr Emery was giving his version of events after a bitter punch-up between the two men at an end-of-season awards dinner.
Mr Vaughan yesterday refused to apologise for his part in the bust-up.
Today, Mr Emery said it was a "rather unseemly squabble".
He said: "We ran a story about Hereford being owed money by Chester City and reported the comments of Graham Turner, as well as speaking to David Burford, of Chester City.
"At the dinner I went across to Stephen Vaughan and congratulated him on the championship."
Mr Emery told Mr Vaughan about the article that was due to be printed the next day.
According to Mr Emery, the Chester chairman then asked him to "go outside" to discuss the matter further.
Mr Emery says nothing happened outside, but Mr Vaughan became angry and made threats.
He added: "He said he was going to sort me out. At 1am I was leaving the dinner and walked past his table.
"I said good night and he took hold of my hand. We wrestled and he tried to aim a very slow butt at me, which I managed to get out of the way of.
"We both fell to the floor and he was pulled off me."
Mr Emery said he was not totally surprised Mr Vaughan had acted in that way.
He said: "You hear about hooligans in the stands but you don't expect them to be running clubs. It was all rather unseemly. I was prepared to walk away and ignore the whole kerfuffle. We had already done our squaring up but he was not prepared to forget it."
Mr Emery is not taking the issue any further.
Mr Vaughan, a boxer for most of his life, said the row erupted after Mr Emery approached him and told him about an article about Chester City which was due to be printed the next day.
The article claimed Chester City owed £18,000 in gate tickets to Hereford United, a claim Mr Vaughan says is completely unfounded.
He said: "It simply was not true, I told Emery he needed to get his facts right to start with. He was aware the money had been paid after a little bit of a delay because of new FA stipulations.
"The truth is Chester City owed Hereford United £17,200 from ticket sales from Chester City's last game of the season. Initially I had sent a cheque to Hereford in the name of the management,Vaughan trading.
"Soon after, we heard of the new FA rules stipulating cheques could not be paid by third parties, a letter of explanation and an apology was sent to Hereford along with a cheque transfer."
The fracas happened in front of club shareholders, directors and Blues player Daryl Clare, who was at the dinner to collect his Golden Boot award.
Mr Vaughan said: "David Emery was just inviting trouble from the start. Words were exchanged, I made my views known and at the end of the night David came over and had a go at me. I hit him all I did was defend the club and I am not apologising for it."