Albury United's Ben Hughes and Kris Wheeler rushed to hospital after heavy head clash during 4-2 win over Boomers

However, the result was largely overshadowed by a sickening collision between United players Kris Wheeler and Ben Hughes in the opening minutes of the second half.

The pair attempted to attack the same ball and clashed heads in the air, with Wheeler falling hard to the ground where he laid unconscious for close to a minute.

Hughes eventually got to his feet, but was still very sluggish as an ambulance was called to the ground to collect both players.

United coach Matt Campbell was happy with the result, but his biggest concern was for the players.

“I probably won’t speak to them until tomorrow (Monday), because with concussions you don’t know where you are for the first day or so,” Campbell said.

“Kris looked worse than Benny, he was out when he hit the deck, but as time went on Benny’s eyes started to close over and you could see he was struggling.

“They looked like they might have hit each other side-on, but Kris was out for a good 45 seconds when he hit the deck, which makes it a bit nerve-wracking.

“We’ve got the week off now and hopefully it was nothing serious.”

Campbell admitted his side was slow to get going, but was pleased with the way they fought back.

Boomers’ Pieter Noordewier opened the scoring in the sixth minute, before an own goal from Boomers’ coach Decha Saisanid squared the game after 10 minutes.

A penalty from Aiden Rees gave United the advantage at half-time and he doubled his tally in the second half to make it 3-1.

Noah Spiteri pulled one back for Boomers with a cracking header off an even better ball from Nathan Scott, but Jay Scammell put the game to bed for United with another clinical finish in the dying stages.

Saisanid conceded United were the better team on the day.

“An own goal, a penalty and conceding two goals in transition is probably the most disappointing part,” he said.

“We had a good share of the play, but they were just more clinical in the front third.

“Their third and fourth goals in particular were good finishes and that’s the difference between the very top sides and us at the moment.”

Saisanid had a good view of the collision and said he hadn’t seen a knock and concussion as hard as that in his extensive career.