A MAN arrested on suspicion of racially aggravated public order during a Hartlepool football match has been released under investigation.

The 43-year-old was arrested following ugly scenes at the Hartlepool v Dover game on Saturday.

As Dover players celebrated scoring, their players were allegedly racially abused by Hartlepool fans and the match was halted for around ten minutes as players and officials intervened.

Cleveland Police confirmed today that the arrested man has been released under investigation, while inquiries continue.

A 60-year-old man has also been reported for summons after he allegedly encroached the pitch during the game.

A police spokeswoman said: "Cleveland Police continues to work with managers and players from both clubs as our inquiries continue and officers expect to identify more people in relation to the alleged racist incidents and disorder.

"We would reiterate that racist behaviour and other disorder at football matches is completely unacceptable and we work with football clubs across the UK, as well as the wider community, on this issue.  "The force will use all available tools including football banning orders to deal robustly with the small minority who persist in taking part in deal with the minority who take part in this behaviour."

For Tuesday’s home game with Chesterfield, the club is distributing cards with the slogan “Love Pools, Hate Racism” for supporters to display in a show of unity.A club statement read: 

“Following events at the weekend, the Club will continue to focus on action rather than words and will make substantive statements once we have completed discussions with the police and handed over all appropriate evidence.

We have spoken with the squad and liaised with anti-racism charities to assist us in taking the appropriate action to support the players and raise awareness.

For Tuesday night’s game we are asking all Poolies to get behind us in taking a stand against racism and will be issuing special cards to be held up declaring “Love Pools, Hate Racism”. 

We are grateful that various supporters groups have offered to contribute towards the production and distribution of these, and hope that as many Pools fans as possible will get behind a simple demonstration to show the players and the public what we are really about.

We will make communicate more once further action has been taken. 

As Craig Hignett declared on Saturday – if you attack one person, you attack us all.”