Dandy Town's Marvin Lewis faces a long time away from local football grounds -- as both a player and spectator -- following Sunday's bottle throwing incident at Southampton Oval in the league match between Rangers and Town.

Lewis, presently serving a three-year international ban for his conduct in Jamaica last year with the Bermuda Under-23 team when he was sent home early, is expected to receive at least a 10-year ban as a player as well as an indefinite ban from all club grounds, under new tough disciplinary measures agreed upon by both the Bermuda Football Association and its affiliate clubs.

The bottle allegedly thrown by Lewis actually struck referee Chris Terry in the back and according to the new disciplinary measures for offences against referees and linesmen adopted by the BFA, the volatile Lewis faces a minimum 10-year suspension for "striking with an instrument other than the ball''.

His brief spell with his new club has already been controversial, having been sent off two weeks ago in a match against Vasco at PHC Stadium for foul and abusive language. He had entered the game just four minutes earlier as a substitute.

Home club Southampton Rangers have been quick to act on the latest incident -- another in a series which continue to tarnish the image of the sport -- and in the next day or so confirmation is expected to be sent to the BFA of Lewis' ban from that ground. That will likely be followed by a ban from all club grounds, as agreed by field operators earlier this season in a bid to stamp out unruly behaviour by fans.

Ironically, both offenders so far have been players, with Lewis following Social Club's Troy Saunders who was banned for an incident at Devonshire Rec.

earlier this month.

"That's really something,'' said Aldwyn Savery who is a former Director of the Bermuda Referees Association and is presently a BFA director and chairman of the Referees Committee.

Savery is also president of Southampton Rangers and was present at the ground on Sunday when the incident happened early in the second half, just moments after Town's Carlos Smith was sent off.

"It's something we have to look at very, very carefully but we have to treat everybody alike. We expect the players to be a little more sensitive to what we're trying to do, but obviously they aren't. This was a blatant `don't care-ish' attitude.'' Savery confirmed that swift action would be taken against Lewis, whose identity was relayed to the officials by Rangers players who saw him throw the bottle. Officials acted quickly in removing Lewis from the ground.

"As soon as we got on the field we were told who he was by our goalkeeper and we looked and saw him leaving the field,'' said Savery. "Two of the executive members rushed up and got to him to make sure he left the field. He was on the northern bank.

"My personal opinion was that the bottle was thrown onto the field so that the referee would abandon the game. In this case the referee was smart enough to pull his people onto the centre circle and wait there until our executive members got to them.'' Added Savery: "Both the Dandy Town and Rangers players were very calm and they just stood there to wait and see what the referee was going to do. As soon as I informed the referee that the spectator had been escorted away he got on with the game and had no further trouble.'' The fact that Lewis is well known made it easy for him to be recognised, but Savery stressed the importance of spectators, in particular, helping to identify culprits who might not be so well known.

Savery said because the incident was so clear-cut, there would be no need for an emergency meeting to try to identify the offender.

"Everything was so clear that we discussed it yesterday (Sunday) and decided we would write and tell the BFA what happened,'' said the president.

"We got the bottle that was thrown and we're well satisfied that our security was tight and that we abided by everything that we said we were going to. We were able to apprehend the person who threw the bottle and we're going to take steps.

Savery made a special appeal to the fans to consider the harm that is being done by unruly behaviour.

"I hope that all the people will be a little more sensitive to what the BFA is trying to do and the hardships the clubs are going through. They have to realise the clubs are there for their good.

"The clubs are not making a lot of money. We're pumping all the money we are making back into programmes and we can hardly afford to maintain the upkeep of our club. We need people to be a little more sensitive and come out and help rather than destroy things which in the end might cause someone to get seriously hurt.

"It would be nice if spectators would join in. Even if they don't want to get involved by helping put the person out of the field, just point them out.'' BFA general secretary David Sabir declined comment yesterday until the referee's report had been received. That is anticipated by today.

MARVIN LEWIS -- identified as Sunday's culprit