FORMER Gills fitness trainer Laura Church has lost an appeal for sex discrimination after being sacked from the football club.

The 40-year-old Hempstead woman took her case to an employment tribunal, claiming she had been sacked because she was making the footabllers' wives jealous.

But the tribunal found in favour of the Division One football club.

The row with the club started after Miss Church sent a midnight text to player Chris Hope after a game in July last year, adding three kisses to the end of the text.

Miss Church told player manager Andy Hessenthaler the following day about the text, but had also left an aggressive message on the Hope's answerphone, which then prompted the couple to inform Mr Hessenthaler.

But Mr Hessenthaler delayed telling the club's chairman, Paul Scally, because he was grieving his young son's death.

Miss Church was told to leave the club on August 12 by Mr Scally, who cited unprofessional behaviour as the reason.

Miss Church told the tribunal that Mr Scally had told her that she was being dismissed because of pressure from his wife and the other footballers' wives.

She also told the tribunal that she had stayed in England with injured players while the rest of the team travelled to France because the wives were jealous.

Both Mr Scally and Mr Hessenthaler denied making any of the comments.

The tribunal said it formed the view that Laura Church was "elaborating" her evidence.

The tribunal said it was significant that it was Laura Church, not the Hopes, who first drew attention to the text message.

The tribunal noted : "If there had been some truth in the applicant's belief that she was the victim of a campaign by jealous wives, we would have expected Mr or Mrs Hope to be the first to approach the club.

"However, they had no intention of doing so."

In an eight-page decision, the tribunal said it "preferred" Mr Scally's evidence.

It went on: "We did not find it credible that immediately after dismissing the applicant, he would make comments that would give the applicant grounds to believe she was a victim of sex discrimination.

"There was a further reason why we found that Mr Scally was more likely to be a reliable witness. We were struck by the fact that Mr Scally told us he had no recollection of Mr Hessenthaler telling him about the applicant's aggressive answerphone message.

"This suggested to the tribunal that Mr Scally was likely to be an honest witness. If he had wished to bolster the club's case by relying on a further reason for dismissing the applicant, he could have told us that the answerphone message was an important contributory reason for his decision to dismiss."

Mr Scally said after the tribunal: "We are delighted but not surprised by the judgement and we would obviously have been disappointed if the tribunal had reached any other decision.

"The judgement repeats over and over again the fact that the tribunal believed the club's witnesses - myself, our manager Andy Hessenthaler and the player Chris Hope - over Miss Church.

"I feel that the tribunal has, by its judgement, agreed with us. This case was never about the revenge of footballers' wives as Miss Church alleged in some of the national papers and at the tribunal.

"She was sacked because of unprofessional conduct. I made that clear to her when I sacked her and the tribunal clearly accepted my evidence and felt I was justified in taking the action I did.

"The idea that any of the players' wives influenced me to sack Miss Church was simply laughable and was just part of her efforts to sensationalise a very simple issue.

"Unfortunately, her story was swallowed by the tabloids and it is almost impossible now for us to redress the balance.

"The reputation of the football club has been tarnished and I hope those tabloids afford the club the same publicity now that Miss Church's story has been discredited."

He also added that she had earned a large sum for selling her story to the tabloid press and that the club would be pursuing the possibility of seeking an order for costs against Miss Church after the club incurred costs as a result of the tribunal.

Miss Church was not able to claim unfair dismissal, because she had only been employed by the club for six weeks and not a year which is required to take a case to an employment tribunal.