A VILLAGE football team had a lucky escape when its minibus was involved in a serious crash on the way back from Ipswich Town's game at Wolverhampton Wanderers.

A VILLAGE football team had a lucky escape when its minibus was involved in a serious crash on the way back from Ipswich Town's game at Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Players from Worlingworth FC, near Framlingham, were travelling back from supporting the Blues on Saturday when the minibus overturned near Huntingdon on the A14 at about 7.30pm. No other vehicles were involved.

The driver was trapped in the wreckage and had to be cut free by fire crews. The rest of the team had a lucky escape with only minor cuts and bruises.

Simon Rodwell, manager of Worlingworth, who was not on the minibus, said he initially feared the worst when he heard about it.

He said: “They had all been sitting there and the next thing they knew the bus had overturned and one of them got his arm trapped between the seats and needed to be cut out. The others were left with cuts and bruises.

“As soon as they said that one needed to be cut out I thought 'here we go, this is not looking very good' but I texted them all straight away and they said they were all okay but a little bit shaken.”

Yesterday'sRM2 division game against E.ON was called off as a result of the incident.

Mr Rodwell said: “I spoke to one of the guy's from E.ON and he was fine about calling the game off and said 'as long as everybody is okay'. We will rearrange the game for a couple of weeks' time.”

The East of England Ambulance Service said it received initial reports of an overturned minibus with 12 casualties.

However just one ambulance was needed for the driver who was trapped and he was taken to hospital with arm injuries. His condition was not believed to be serious.

A spokesman for the ambulance service said: “However horrible it sounded at first, just the one ambulance was required.”