A FOOTBALL match was abandoned after a telephone mix-up resulted in an ambulance taking nearly 20 minutes to get to a player with a broken leg.

The Bolton Combination League match between Stoneclough and Turton was stopped after just five minutes when Turton goalkeeper Neil Kernick clashed with a player and suffered a double fracture to his leg.

A club member phoned for an ambulance but it took 19 minutes for a crew to arrive and take him to hospital.

It was then decided to abandon the match. It later transpired that the ambulance was sent to Stoneclough Road in Kearsley instead of Stoneclough Brow in Little Kearsley, where the match was being played.

Secretary of Stoneclough FC and Assistant Secretary of the Combination League, Peter Conroy, said: "I would not really like to criticise the ambulance service.

"It was an unfortunate mistake and when they did arrive they did a marvellous job."

Mr. Kernick is still in Bolton General Hospital after undergoing an operation at the weekend.

A spokesman for the ambulance service said: "The problem arose because we were given the wrong instructions in the initial phone call and the crew could not find where the incident had taken place."

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