NO REGRETS OVER LEAVING BLACKBURN: MATTHEWS

Pete Matthews "has never felt better" since being offloaded by his boyhood club at the beginning of this year. The disgraced AAAs fraudster was allowed to leave Blackburn Harriers on a free transfer in the January window and - despite reports of the northerner struggling with the pace of London life - claims to have settled down nicely at Blackheath and Bromley.

"I guess that they appreciate me more" said Matthews from his tanning base in Portugal "I outgrew Blackburn and decided that it was time to move on". Quite a different story is told by the Harriers, who state that they had no choice but to get rid of Matthews as he had quite literally outgrown the club vests. "His behaviour was becoming more and more erratic" said a Blackburn insider "we had a meeting and weighed up what he actually brought to the club. We agreed that he added no value and so moved him on."

The most famous athlete never to have broken 4 minutes for 1500m has not been without his difficulties since joining Blackheath. Mike Skinner branded the red head a "national joke" last month and the club fined him heavily after the echo reported that he had fictionalised his 3km time in order to gain entry to the BUCS Indoor Championships. In spite of these setbacks, Matthews told the echo that he was "really excited" about the forthcoming track season. "I might even race" smiled the former GB International (Mountain Running) "in all seriousness though, I am ready to smash it up".

Matthews also played down rumours of an embarrassing incident in Portugal last week. It is understood that he wasted over 90 minutes talking to a Portuguese stranger who he believed to be an international athlete. When it was revealed that the individual was the head groundsman at the track and had only recorded an "average" 10k time, Matthews was forced into a humiliating U-turn and Facebook deletion.

CLUB MUSIC 'TOO LOUD' SAYS SKINNER

Mike Skinner caused a stir at London nightclub 'Tiger Tiger' last night when he complained that the music was "dangerously loud". Fresh from a silver medal at the National Cross last weekend, the Blackheath and Bromley star was out with pals celebrating a new five year deal with the club rumoured to be worth in excess of £5m. Having initially been turned away from the swanky hot spot at 6:30pm - the club was not yet open - it is believed that the group went for a decaffeinated coffee before returning shortly after 9pm, just an hour before Skinner was aiming to be in bed.

The night then turned sour for 31 year-old when he berated the club's manager for playing music "so loud, it was probably heard in America" and demanded some heavy duty earplugs before going back on the dance floor. Sadly, things went from bad to worse when he spotted that one of the fire exit signs was not fully illuminated. "Mike was really upset about the whole thing" said an observer "he told the bar staff that what they were doing was tantamount to reckless endangerment and demanded that the police be called".

A Metropolitan Police spokesman confirmed that officers had attended the scene to investigate "a noise violation" but had to explain to a baffled Skinner that no rules had been breached and complaints could not be taken seriously from people inside the club. "By this stage it had reached 10pm and Mike was very tired" continued our source "he pledged to take up the matter at a more reasonable time, but was shocked to discover that the club would remain open past 11pm".

Skinner made himself unavailable to comment this morning, but his club have confirmed that he will be visiting an audiologist first thing on Monday morning.