Ex-Aston Villa star’s pre-season night out was so boozy his squad ended in prison cell

Former Aston Villa star Stephen Warnock has revealed how a pre-season drinking session ended with him and his team-mates in a prison cell.

The 42-year-old, who also had stints at Liverpool, Blackburn and Leeds, was on loan at Coventry City during the 2003/04 season. Manager Gary McAllister had put the players through a tough training regime over the summer but allowed them to let off steam with an end-of-tour squad night out.

Warnock shared the story on the Undr The Cosh podcast, explaining how the night descended into chaos after the Coventry players were refused entry to a nightclub. "We were on tour [in Germany], and we'd had a tough pre-season so [McAllister] said we needed to have a bit of team bonding," the former full-back recalled.

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"We had almost like a raft with a bar on it going down a canal, and we were just going to go out and have a day on the booze and get to know each other. Anyway, we've gone out on the p*** and later on we were like, 'Can we go out tonight? ', and [McAllister] said, 'Absolutely, make sure everyone's there'."

"So a few of us wandered down to the local nightclub, it was like a five minute walk, and we get chatting to the doorman or the owner or whoever it was and we were like, 'We're a football team from England, we've got about 30 lads, are we alright to come in tonight with shorts on and stuff?'

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"And he was like, 'Yeah yeah no problem'. So we go back to our hotel and we're drinking for few more hours, and when we get back to the club he said, 'You're not coming in', and we were like, 'Why not? We spoke to you face to face', and he was like, 'Nah nah'."

Tensions quickly escalated, reports the Mirror, culminating in a heated confrontation when Warnock's team-mate, David Pipe, confronted the bouncer. The situation deteriorated rapidly as the doorman retaliated by hitting Pipe in the face with his nightstick.

"The fella's just whipped a cosh out and smacked him [Pipe]," Warnock recalled, "and it'd have knocked anyone else out, killed them, but he just stood there, took a blow to his face and then he's just knocked [the doorman] out, Pipey just floored the fella."

In the aftermath, the players made a hasty retreat, only to be pursued by the police. Warnock, separated from the group and wandering the streets drunk, eventually stumbled upon some of his team-mates at a petrol station, catching their breath.

"I found like five of the lads and we were all buzzing thinking we'd got away with it. But then a riot van comes round the corner and lashes us in the back and all the lads are in there, they've all been caught."

Warnock spent three-and-a-half years on the books at Villa Park, racking up 101 appearances for the club. He joined from Blackburn in 2009 and left in 2013 following a six-month loan at Bolton.

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