Stoke City's play-off semi-final against Cardiff was dramatically stopped as police tried to arrest troublemakers among Potters' followers.

Yesterday's game was stopped for several minutes during the second half as Stoke trailed 2-0 against their Welsh promotion rivals.

But a large-scale police operation prevented any confrontation between the two sets of fans, which both have notorious hooligan elements.

Just three arrests were made inside the ground, one for violent disorder and two for disorderly behaviour. There was one arrest before the match for drug-related offences.

After the match, groups of Stoke fans hurled missiles at police near The Harvester pub in Gordon Banks Drive.

And at about 3.35pm on the West car park, behind the main stand, thugs damaged the roof and side of a blue Audi car belonging to outspoken Cardiff City chairman Sam Hamman.

Despite these isolated incidents, police last night declared their operation to be a success. Hundreds of officers in riot gear were drafted in to police the Britannia Stadium fixture from all over Staffordshire and other forces including Cheshire, Derbyshire, West Mercia, Warwickshire and Greater Manchester.

They had relatively little to do until shortly after Cardiff went into a 2-0 lead in the 59th minute. A minority of Stoke fans started to cause problems in the lower tier of the John Smith's main stand nearest the away supporters.

Scores of police who had been waiting behind the away end marched into the stadium carrying riot shields. They tried to enter the lower tier of the stand to root out troublemakers and make arrests, but fans protested aggressively and more and more officers were brought in.

Because of the large numbers of police on the touchline, the assistant referee was forced on the pitch and the referee called a halt to the game. Order was restored within a few minutes as police entered the stand and formed a strong line around supporters.

The atmosphere became more and more tense as Stoke's promotion hopes seemed to be fading and it looked as though there was going to be a repeat of the ugly scenes which marred the fixture two years ago and resulted in more than 150 arrests being made.

At the end of the game, about 200 police lined the perimeter of the pitch, with scores standing facing the Cardiff fans and as many again facing Stoke fans in the John Smith's and Sentinel stands.

But there were no clashes between rival fans and the Cardiff contingent, the main instigators two years ago, were well-behaved.

Cardiff supporters had been made to travel on coaches which were parked in a secure compound.

Chief Superintendent Ian Ackerley said: "Generally speaking the majority of the 21,245 people attending the game were well behaved.

"There were no confrontations before or after the game between Stoke City and Cardiff City supporters."