An otherwise entertaining friendly was marred by a horror injury to Market Drayton man Tom France – who was rushed to hospital with suspected knee ligament damage.

Ex-Wolves trainee France suffered the misfortune inside the last 10 minutes, coming off worse after going in for a 50/50 challenge with AFC Telford United defender Carl Rodgers.

Fingers crossed

It is the second serious injury of the midfielder’s career, having been stretchered off six years ago while playing for Wolves – ironically at Telford’s New Bucks Head in a reserve game against Liverpool.

“Tom’s gone in as he always does, but at the wrong angle and he’s come off second best,” said Drayton boss Simon Line. “There’s no blame attributed to the Telford player.

“It’s sad because he’s a lovely young lad and we’re keeping our fingers crossed. We fear the worst, but we’ll hope for the best.”

Telford boss Andy Sinton used the game against the Evo-Stik League division one south opposition to test several trialists.

He fielded two almost completely different sides in the two halves – with centre-back Shane Killock the only man to play 90 minutes and goalkeeper Ryan Young the only other player who appeared in the first period to start the second.

The Blue Square Bet North visitors always looked the sharper of the two sides on a muggy day at Greenfields, taking an early lead when Steve Abbott finished from close range after a quick break by Alex Meechan.

Drayton were level on 21 minutes, Mark Grice making the most of a mix-up between Young and defender Liam Murray and nipping in to flick the ball over the keeper.

But the hosts paid for poor defending at set-pieces, conceding from two corners before the break.

Killock put the Bucks back in front with a towering header off Martyn Naylor’s delivery on 33 minutes.

Trialist Will Richards made it three with a shot that went in off the underside of the bar.

The rush of half-time changes didn’t change the flow of the game, and Danny Carey-Bertram duly made it four by poking in off Andy Brown’s knock-down four minutes after the re-start.

Sean Evans then completed the scoring with the pick of the bunch on 72 minutes, a screaming strike hit with the outside of his left foot from a full 30 yards out, wide on the left.

“We’ve had a hard week and we’re still finding our feet but I’m very happy,” said Sinton.

“I’m very excited by what I’m seeing. We played a lot of good stuff – it was a bit disjointed because I made a lot of changes but it’s going well.”

By CHRIS HUDSON