A Kentish Town footballer who knocked an opponent unconscious will serve less than five months in jail after winning an appeal.

Kalem Conor Noble, 24, of Carrol Close, struck George Carradine in frustration during a match in Hackney in April last year, a court heard.

The 6ft 4ins defender’s teeth were smashed and he was knocked unconscious at Victoria Park.

Noble, a winger with Belsize Park-based Earlsberg Eagles, was found guilty of assault occasioning actual bodily harm at Wood Green Crown Court and jailed for two years in May.

But after an appeal, the former Barnet Council binman had his prison sentence cut to nine months.

Noble will be freed on licence after serving four-and-a-half months.

Judge John Bevan QC, sitting at the Court of Appeal, said Noble was jostling with the IB Albion defender at a goal kick.

Suddenly he swung his arm back and caught Mr Carradine in the face.

Carradine was knocked out momentarily, while one tooth was snapped in half and another loosened, needing £5,000 of dental work.

Noble claimed he did not intend to cause injury but, frustrated at heavy marking, thought ‘enough is enough’ and struck out.

Judge Bevan said Noble had no history of violence beyond a caution for common assault in 2009.

He continued: ‘We are of the view that this was a serious assault and comfortably crosses the custodial threshold.

“However, we regard the length of sentence as inappropriate for a single blow, unpremeditated or nearly so, in the context of a physical contact sport.”