BOLTON Wanderers' young goalkeeper Matthew Glennon has spoken of his relief after being cleared of sex and violence allegations at a local nightclub.

The Wanderers' reserve keeper said he wanted to put the incident behind him to concentrate on his playing career and his future.

The young football ace, aged 21, of Larkhill Road, Cheadle Hulme, Stockport, was cleared yesterday of indecent assault on a female and causing her actual bodily harm, and a charge of wounding and wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm to a man on October 31 last year.

Speaking from his family home in Stockport, he said: "I am absolutely delighted that it's all over.

"The club and my family have stood by me all the way.

"It would have been a disgrace if I had not been cleared. I now just want to put it all behind me. I just want to get on with playing."

Wanderers players and Glennon's friends, who had filled every available seat in the court, shouted "yes" when the jury returned not guilty verdicts on all the charges.

A tense and nervous Glennon looked shattered as the verdicts were announced and he was told he could leave the dock. He then left the court in tears as his barrister applied for court costs to be paid from central funds.

He had vigorously denied all the charges, which stemmed from an incident last year at the Atlantis nightclub, during a two-day trial held at Bolton Crown Court.

It was alleged that he indecently assaulted and then assaulted a woman in the nightclub and then hit Philip Hale repeatedly with a bottle when he intervened.

He had just enjoyed a meal with some of the other Bolton players and had gone to the nightclub with them and his brother.

The incident, which happened in the downstairs area of the club near the gents' toilets, came only hours after Glennon sat on Wanderers' first team substitutes bench for the game against Swindon Town.

And it had been only two weeks since the 6ft 2ins keeper had been brought back to the Reebok from a loan period with Port Vale to counter a goalkeeping crisis following injuries to Keith Branagan and Steve Banks.

Glennon, who signed for Wanderers as a schoolboy six years ago, said he had managed to put the threat of a jail sentence to the back of his mind throughout last season and it had not affected his form.

But he admitted it had begun to play on his mind during this summer's tour of the USA as the trial date loomed.

He said: "I managed to put it to the back of my mind. But when we were in America on tour I kept thinking about it."

He picked up a ligament injury in his shoulder on the tour while playing and is now out injured.

The young player added he was now much more careful about going out, particularly to nightclubs.