Shane Richards, of Lime Tree Road, pleaded guilty at Nottingham Crown Court to grievous bodily harm with intent on Darren Oleszynski (31) at the Chequers Inn on High Street on Thursday January 22.

Kieron Toulson (18), also of Lime Tree Road, pleaded not guilty to grievous bodily harm but admitted assault causing actual bodily harm. His plea was accepted by the prosecution.

Darren, of Abbots Walk on Hucknall's Beauvale Estate, claimed he went to the Chequers for a quiet evening out – a couple of pints and a game of pool with a friend – when two men came in.

He claimed one of them punched him for no reason and he instinctively punched him back, after which he was whacked very hard in the face with a pool cue.

Darren spent four days in the Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham. But doctors could not save his right eye and he also suffered a broken jaw and a broken nose.

He claimed a bottle was smashed at the back of his head during the attack. He said he was lucky to have survived at all because he had a steel plate in the side of his head after a road accident in 2007

Jon Fountain (prosecuting) said Richards "weighed in" with the pool cue when he saw Toulson and Darren involved in a fist fight.

Michael Evans (for Richards) said the basis of his client's plea was that he struck Darren twice with the cue but not with a glass.

Judge Joan Butler told Richards: "Clearly, this offence warrants an immediate custody-sentence and not an insubstantial one."

Richards and Toulson were bailed for sentence on Wednesday July 15 with a condition not to enter any licensed premises in the meantime.