BALLYMENA UNITED Football Club have issued the following statement ahead of Saturday's Premiership tie with Linfield at the Showgrounds.

At the Disciplinary Committee hearing in April 2008, the club was fined £1000 for serious disturbances at the match with Lisburn Distillery on Saturday 22 March 2008.

On that occasion, the committee stopped short of imposing a stadium sanction on the club, but it is clear that should there be any repetition, then that is what is likely to happen.

With the recent allegations of racist chanting by a small section of our support still to be resolved, the club cannot afford any further reports of poor crowd behaviour or control.

We therefore implore our supporters to treat Mr. Jeffrey with the utmost respect on Saturday coming and, particularly, to refrain from any 'offensive personal chants'.