Former Sunderland man Tom Flanagan suffered a serious knee injury in the early stages of Shrewsbury Town's weekend League One game against Port Vale - with on-loan Black Cat Joe Anderson replacing him and earning praise from Shrews boss Matt Taylor. Flanagan went down injured after only four minutes at the New Meadow, and Taylor said afterwards they were 'fearing the worst' with the defender leaving the ground in a knee brace which indicated he could be out for an extended period.

Taylor said: "Tom is in a knee brace we are fearing the worst, and it just seems at the moment that everything is going against us. Tom ... is quite emotional at the moment as you can imagine."

Flanagan's injury meant Anderson came off the bench and he helped the Shrews to a 2-1 win, with Max Mata putting the hosts ahead just before the half-hour and then Dan Udoh doubling their lead a couple of minutes into the second half, before Tom Sang pulled a goal back for Vale shortly before the hour. Of Anderson's performance, Taylor added: "Joe's come in for some criticism from me recently to be quite frank with you, but what he did [on Saturday] was he focused on the basics, which is defending."

The win lifted Shrewsbury to 12th in the table, and their next game sees them take on Exeter City at St james Park tonight. In League Two, on-loan Sunderland goalkeeper Alex Bass played a crucial role as AFC Wimbledon beat promotion-hopefuls Notts County 4-2 at Plough Lane.

The Dons went in front through Jake Reeves' penalty just before the half-hour, with Ali Al-Hamadi making it 2-0 five minutes before the break. County struck back to haul themselves level by the midway point in the second period thanks to two goals in the space of five minutes from Macauley Langstaff and Aaron Nemane.

Bass then made a superb save from John Bostock's powerful header to prevent County completing the turnaround, and not long afterwards the Dons went back in front on 86 minutes as Reeves scored from the spot for the second time in the game, with Al-Hamadi adding his second goal of the game to round off the scoring in injury-time. The win lifted Wimbledon to eighth in the the table, and their next game is at Gillingham tonight.

In the National League, on-loan Sunderland defender Zak Johnson played the full 90 minutes as Hartlepool United lost 4-1 at the hands of high-flying Bromley at Victoria Park. Michael Cheek put the visitors ahead on five minutes, and then added a second goal shortly before half-time.

Emmanuel Dieseruvwe pulled one back early in the second period, but Bromley restored their two-goal lead just a couple of minutes later through Ben Krauhaus, and Olufela Olomola made it 4-1 in injury-time. Defeat leaves Hartlepool 12th in the table, and their next game sees them travel to AFC Fylde on Saturday.