A WOMAN football chief accused her club chairman yesterday of using her relationship with a married club director as a smokescreen to cover her unfair dismissal.

Helen Coverdale is claiming Darlington Football Club's chairman George Reynolds had not renewed her contract as commercial manager, to enable his teenage daughter Victoria to take up the post.

Miss Coverdale, who ended up in a fight with her lover's wife, said: "Mr Reynolds' motto is throw enough dirt and enough will stick or just cause confusion."

The relationship between Miss Coverdale and Darlington director Mike Metcalf was revealed earlier in the tribunal, which was told the affair was damaging the club's family image.

Yesterday's hearing bristled with tension as tempers flared and insults were traded when Miss Coverdale was cross-examined by Mr Reynolds.

Miss Coverdale denied breaking up Mr Metcalf's marriage and said their romance had started several months after he had left his wife, Michelle.

When they split up, he moved into a Darlington FC-owned flat in Shildon, directly below a flat which Miss Coverdale was using.

She said: "There were rumours we were seeing each other much earlier. It was these rumours that caused Mrs Metcalf to react in the way she did."

She said in the first incident, Mrs Metcalfe had kicked her car.

A second incident took place at a game when Miss Coverdale was confronted by Mrs Metcalf as she passed the director's lounge.

She said: "I heard quick steps behind me and Mrs Metcalf grabbed my hair and hit me.

"She said I want you to keep away from my husband. Someone intervened and took Michelle to the players' lounge to calm down.

"Mr Metcalf had left Michelle. He had taken a couple of other girls out, but she knew I was the serious one."

Miss Coverdale, who is claiming unfair dismissal, also wants compensation for a profit-related commission included in her contract. She disputed that she had agreed to waive her commission in return for a £500 pay rise.

Mr Reynolds, who did not give evidence, said Miss Coverdale a had "reality problem, a chip on her shoulder and inferiority complex".

He dismissed her contention that his daughter had replaced her in the post and said her contract had not been renewed because of her poor commercial performance and inability to be a team player.

He also pointed at her combative conduct at the hearing as illustrative of why people did not get on with her.

The tribunal ended yesterday and judgement was reserved to a later date.