WIMBORNE Town boss James Stokoe was left proud of his charges despite their 3-1 loss to rivals Poole, with the Magpies agreeing to play on after defender Dan Strugnell picked up a nasty injury.

The Cross-Stour derby was only seven minutes young when former Cherries youngster Strugnell landed awkwardly on his leg, leading to the game being suspended for over 40 minutes.

Despite the Magpies being shellshocked by the incident, match official Lewis Sandoe decided that game had to continue – otherwise Wimborne would have had to forfeit.

When asked the extent of the injury by the Daily Echo, Stokoe responded: “We don’t actually know at the moment (what the diagnosis is.) We’re hoping that it’s just a dislocation.

“It’s very swollen, he’s got a big lump on the side of it. He was in a lot of pain.

“Poole have been brilliant in that aspect today – they’ve managed to get him in a van and get him down to the hospital for us. The ambulance was still about three hours away.”

The 1,067-strong crowd was shocked into silence by the freak accident, with one spectator requiring medical aid after fainting at the sight of the injury.

“It didn’t look nice,” continued Stokoe.

“There was a fan behind the bottom goal here, who has fainted after seeing it.

“So, it just tells you how serious and how bad it was. There was a lot of lads in the changing room, who’s heads were not sort of right. But the ref has made the decision to play the game, and all we can do is go out there and carry on.

“I just said to the lads we’ve got two options. The ref said we’ve got to play, so we either go out there or we don’t, and we concede (the game.)

“That’s not who I was as a player, I don’t want to do that. The lads decided to suck it up and go out there, and do the best they can.”

One player who was clearly impacted by the ordeal was midfielder Bouwe Bosma, who remained on the pitch to comfort Strugnell. When play resumed, Magpies quickly fell behind 2-0 – before Bosma was dismissed for two silly fouls in quick succession.

When asked if the incident had affected Bosma, Stokoe said: “It was two silly bookings. He was one of the ones who didn’t look quite right after it happened.

“I think the first one was silly, and the second one – I don’t think he was happy with the challenge that the lad put in on Barts (Dan Bartlett) a few minutes before, and it was a little bit of retaliation.

“Whether he has forgot he was on a yellow or chanced it, I don’t know. I’ve got no real complaints about both yellow cards, but it’s not helped us in the situation.”