A Felixstowe man who knocked a man unconscious during a “vicious” late night attack as he was walking home after watching an England World Cup match last summer has been jailed for 27 months.

Dale Taylor had watched the England v Italy game at Felixstowe Rugby Club, Mill Lane, on June 14 and was walking home with friends after the final whistle at around 1am, Ipswich Crown Court was told.

In Grange Road they passed three men in an alleyway and shortly afterwards Mr Taylor left his friends and turned into Vicarage Road.

While he was walking two men walked past him and almost immediately he felt a blow to the back of his head.

He was repeatedly kicked and punched and tried to protect himself by covering his head.

“I ended up across the other side of Vicarage Road face down on the floor and I was knocked unconscious,” Mr Taylor said.

When he came round he used his T-shirt to wipe blood off his face and returned home where the police and paramedics were called. He suffered a 5cm cut above his right eye requiring 16 stitches and fractured the side of his nose.

Mr Taylor claimed he recognised one of his attackers and picked him out as Nicholas Ryan, 24 at a police identification parade.

Ryan, who had been living in Thorn Way, denied unlawfully wounding Mr Taylor but was found guilty at an earlier trial.

Sentencing him, Deputy Circuit Judge Peter Jacobs described the attack as “vicious” and said Mr Taylor had suffered bruising to his head, face and ribs.

Giving evidence, Ryan claimed he watched the England match at a friend’s house in Felixstowe before falling asleep on a sofa at another friend’s house.

He denied being in the Vicarage Road area at the time of the attack and denied being one of the three people who allegedly “beat him up”.

Stephen Mather, for Ryan, said his client had ADHD. He said had a job waiting for him on his release from prison and while in custody he had completed several courses.