A HIBS fan who carried out an "exceptionally frightening" attack on Rangers player Lee Wallace has narrowly dodged jail.

Dale Pryde was drunk and high on cocaine when he took part in a pitch invasion after last year's Scottish Cup final.

Glasgow Sheriff Court heard that the 20-year-old climbed an advertising hoarding to gain access to the pitch before running at the footballer and trying to punch him on the body.

He also pled guilty to assaulting two Rangers fans following the game on May 21: the first, Jordan Gilmour, by punching him on the head and then using a chair to assault Megan Boyd.

Sheriff Kenneth Hogg said: "Lee Wallace went to work. He is a footballer who went to play a game of football and somebody runs on the pitch and attempts to punch him.

"That merits the jail."

Pryde's defence lawyer Susan Walker said the attack was "a pretty unsophisticated attempt".

But Sheriff Hogg countered that it would have been "exceptionally frightening" for Mr Wallace to see someone run at him on the pitch.

Following the attempt to punch Mr Wallace, Pryde was detained by a Rangers security guard. However, he made free and continued his rampage, coming into contact with Mr Gilmour and Ms Boyd before being arrested.

He was kept in the cells overnight to sober up before being released.

Pryde, from Greendykes, Edinburgh, pled guilty to a charge, contrary to the Offensive Behaviour at Football Act, and the two assault charges.

Ms Walker said that, as a Hibbs fan, Pryde had been "overtaken by the occasion" and the fallout from his behaviour had seriously impacted on his life.

Pryde, who the court heard was taken into care as a child because his parents were substance abusers, had been completing an apprenticeship as an electrician but was asked to resign.

The publicity surrounding the case also forced him to move out of the foster placement he had been living in.

Sheriff Hogg took account of Pryde's "genuine remorse and shame", sentencing him to a community payback order of 220 hours of unpaid work to be completed in nine months; a three month restriction of liberty order keeping him at home between 7pm and 6am; an a one year football banning order.