Did his designer coat get him kicked out of bar?

DOOR STAFF WOULDN’T LET MAN IN BECAUSE OF HIS COAT

A STUDENT refused entry into a trendy Tyneside bar for wearing a Stone Island coat claims he was made to feel like a “football hooligan”.

Connor Lilley was celebrating his girlfriend’s birthday when bouncers at Filthy’s bar in Newcastle’s Bigg Market knocked him back.

Stone Island is heavily linked with hooligan fashion, but Connor fumed: “The irony is, I don’t even like football.”

And he was even more stunned after leaving, only for a posh Quayside restaurant to let him in with the jacket.

“I wore it at 21, where I work, for dinner that night, and it is funny I can wear it there but not Filthy’s,” he added.

A boss at the bar claims they do let people in dressed in Stone Island, claiming Connor was rejected for being “intoxicated”.

“That’s ridiculous - I’d only had about three drinks,” replied the Northumbria University student.

He’s now calling for bars to scrap “outdated” dress codes.

“The doorman told me that I could come inside if I turned my badge inside out,” he claimed. But what is a badge going to do? Is a badge going to turn me into a hooligan all of a sudden?

“I thought they were joking at first.” The incident unfolded on Saturday evening, the day West Ham played Newcastle United at St James’ Park. The pair have a heated rivalry. In the 1980s, rival ‘firms’ of hooligans from both clubs would clash before and after fixtures.

In one incident, a petrol bomb was hurled at West Ham supporters in retaliation to the stabbing of two Toon fans. But a manager at the bar denied it was to do with the football, adding the dress code is “smart casual” - meeting even casual clothes are OK. “People are allowed in wearing jeans and trainers - and if someone has a hat, we just ask them to take it off for the CCTV,” they insisted. “Speaking to our door staff, we understand he was rejected for being intoxicated.”

But the 22-year-old stands by his claims that the “retro” jacket - his brother’s old one, gifted to him at Christmas - saw him knocked back.

And he pointed out: “I was out with my girlfriend what harm was I going to do?”

The doorman told me that I could come inside if I turned my badge inside out Connor Lilley