'I'd trust Ternent with my life,' Fergie tells assault trial

Alex Ferguson said a football manager accused of headbutting a cricket spectator was one of the most honest people he knew in the game, a court heard today.

A jury at Lancaster Crown Court was told the Manchester United boss would trust ex-Burnley FC boss Stan Ternent with his life.

Ferguson provided a character reference for Ternent, 61, who is on trial for the alleged assault of the son of a former colleague at a cricket match.

He wrote: “Stan is one of the most honest and direct people I have ever come across in the football game.

“He has always been forthright and sometimes blunt, but I like that sort of person and Stan is one person I would trust with my life.

“Knowing Stan the way I do, I would expect him to defend himself. He certainly wouldn’t just stand there and take abuse, but he is definitely not an aggressor.”

Ternent denies headbutting Greg Wilson, 27, at Burnley Cricket Club on August 6 last year and said it was an accidental clash of heads.

Giving evidence, the manager of Burnley between 1998 and 2004 said Mr Wilson flew into a rage when he made a remark to him in the clubhouse.

He told the court: “I went up to him and said: ’You’re looking well’ (pointing to his stomach).

“He started swearing and called me a f***ing prick…before walking off. I was upset and embarrassed so I followed him outside and asked him: ’What was the problem, Alex?’.”

Ternent said he had got Mr Wilson’s name mixed up with his brother.

He said Mr Wilson, of Kiddrow Lane, Burnley, England quickly came towards him and he thought he was going to be struck.

“I ducked down to my right and somehow our heads came together as I tried to get out of his way. It was an accident,” he told the jury.

When he saw blood pouring from Mr Wilson’s head he apologised to him.

Mr Wilson needed hospital treatment for a deep cut above his left eyebrow and had nine stitches to his forehead.

Ternent also apologised to the alleged victim’s father, Harry, who Ternent claimed responded by pouring a glass of red wine over him.

Ternent said he did not think there was any animosity towards him from Mr Wilson because he knew taking him on was a “non-starter” and they had since remained friends.

The former manager of Burnley, Bury, Gillingham, Blackpool and Hull later wept in the witness box as he said the arrest and subsequent trial had been very hard on his family and friends.

Yesterday, fellow bosses Paul Jewell and Kevin Blackwell told the court that excerpts of Ternent’s autobiography, which recalled how they were ’attacked’ by Ternent, were a “pack of lies”.

His book, Stan The Man: A Hard Life in Football, ghost-written by ex-Daily Sport editor Tony Livesey, was presented to the jury as a bad character reference.

In it he boasts that he “bashed” former Wigan manager Jewell’s head against a dugout roof and gave Luton Town boss Blackwell a “right f***ing hiding” outside a referee’s dressing room.

Ternent’s version of events in both cases were rubbished as fabrications by both managers.

Ternent admitted the book, which he himself had not read entirely, contained “embellishments”.

He said it was written to raise funds for Burnley FC which was in financial straits after the collapsed ITV Digital television deal.