A serious injury saw a football semi-final delayed for more than an hour as a player waited for medical treatment.

Downham Town's Matty Blackford suffered a double leg fracture 10 minutes before half-time in last night's Norfolk Senior Cup tie against Watton United at 8.20pm.

A deadline of 9.30pm was set for resuming the match as 25-year-old referee Matthew Friend worked with Norfolk FA officials to get paramedics to the scene.

They provided treatment before taking him to the N&N hospital for further treatment.

After delays of an hour, Downham manager Dale Stokes took his team into the changing room where they decided to play on in Blackford's honour.

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Coming out after half-time, Downham controlled the second half and scored two more goals to seal a 3-0 win over their lower-level opponents, catapulting them to the final at Carrow Road.

Blackford, a 24-year-old forward, had also suffered a fracture in Downham's FA Vase fixture against Newmarket Town in September.

After taking six months out to recover, he returned to the starting line-up for the Senior Cup quarter-final against Wroxham and scored an equaliser.

Taking to social media, Blackford wrote: "Don’t even know what to say. Been a super tough few hours - a double leg break just six months after my last leg break.

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"Can’t really put my thoughts into words. Just want to say thanks to everyone there who helped me out, I really do appreciate it."

A bucket was passed around at Downham's Memorial Playing Field stadium as a collection for Blackford was started.

Club secretary and welfare officer George Dickson said: "We'd love to give Matty as much support as we can.

"We've set up the GoFundMe with the aim of raising £5,000 as he won't be able to work or play football.

"We're also planning on running a fundraiser in the future to help give him that support."