A MAJOR police operation averted serious trouble between New-port County and Cardiff City fans last night.

As 1,160 fans attended the match, 160 police officers patrolled the streets outside to prevent the sort of trouble Newport witnessed the last time the two teams met in the summer of 2000.

Officers used specialist stop and search powers and a helicopter to beam live pictures back to the central police station, in an operation deemed a success.

Our picture shows police officers escorting Newport County fans across George Street bridge to Spytty Park for last night's match.

One person was arrested for a public order offence.

The highly organised operation involved police, with their numbers boosted by colleagues from South Wales, the football club, the city council and local licensees.

Ticket sales were carefully restricted so officers believed that any trouble would probably occur outside the ground.

Before kick-off they broke up a fight broke outside Pill's Irish club involving around 50 men.

A convoy of police vans, motorbikes and cars escorted groups of fans to the stadium across the George Street bridge and up to Spytty.

Some were turned back because they had no tickets and groups of rival fans were monitored by the police outside the ground.

At 7pm special stop and search powers were invoked in a one-mile radius of the football ground in a bid to deter violence.

A large group of City fans were said to be at Spytty's Megabowl and police with dogs and riot gear stood outside in case of trouble.

A brawl did break out outside Newport Central Police Station involving Newport fans but this was quickly brought under control and the fans escorted over George Street Bridge before being dispersed.

A number of pubs closed early to prevent people congregating in the city centre.

Superintendent Nigel Russell said: "In my view the policing operation went very well.

Whilst there were some sporadic incidents we were able to keep them very short without overreacting which meant that the primary aim of the day of minimising any public order incidents was met."

And he added: "While 160 officers may seem like a large number of resources it is unfortunate that we have to use this number of officers to stop any opportunity of violence which could affect a large number of people living in the city.

"We had a lot of assistance from the licensees in and around the area who had volunteered to close or provide their own door staff to minimise any disruption in the pubs."