TWO thugs, who kicked a nightclubber in the head “like he was a football”

have been jailed.

Carl Pendlebury was left unconscious with bleeding on the brain following the attack in Bolton town centre, a court heard.

Yesterday Matthew Green and Shane Hand were each jailed for two-and-a halfyears at Bolton Crown Court.

Lisa Bakker, prosecuting, told the court Mr Pendlebury, aged 22, was on a night out in Ikon on May 28 last year when he was in an argument with Green and Hand and all three were thrown out of the club.

A doorman heard one of the two defendants say “I am going to kill him in the blue top”.

Mr Pendlebury, his girlfriend, and friends made their way to Knowsley Street where they waited to get a taxi home.

Green and Hand got involved in an incident with another man in Bridge Street, and two police officers told them to leave the area.

But they headed back to Ikon with the intention of sneaking back in through a rear door and just before 3.30am, came across Mr Pendlebury in Knowsley Street and attacked him.

“Mr Green and Mr Hand were kicking Mr Pendlebury like a football and one of the offenders stamping Mr Pendlebury to the head,” said Miss Bakker.

Mr Pendlebury’s girlfriend, April, was also hit as she tried to stop the attack.

Green and Hand ran off and Mr Pendlebury was rushed to the Royal Bolton Hospital with bleeding inside his skull.

Green, aged 21, of Ainsworth Lane, Tonge Moor, and Hand, aged 22, of Meadowside Avenue, Breightmet, pleaded guilty to attempted grievous bodily harm with intent.

Colin Buckle, defending Hand, said a prison sentence for the father-of-two would be a “personal disaster”.

Judge Rowena Goode said it was only by good fortune Mr Pendlebury had not suffered any permanent injury.

Det Cons Rick Armstrong said: “This was mindless violence for its own sake.

“The sentence handed down by the court will send a signal to the public that this sort of thuggish behaviour will not be tolerated in a civilised society.”