Barrow AFC defender Dan Jones has played down the ankle knock that forced him to be substituted while on duty with England C on Tuesday night.

Jones was earning his second cap for the non-league national side in their match against Wales C at Salford City’s Peninsula Stadium, which ended in an entertaining 2-2 draw.

The 24-year-old has come on leaps and bounds as a centre-back with the Bluebirds this season, but he was fielded in his old position of left-back by England C coach Paul Fairclough.

At a time when AFC really can’t afford any more injuries, Jones gave them a bit of a scare when he signalled to the bench that he needed to come off after going over on his ankle and he was replaced by Dan Happe of Leyton Orient after 53 minutes.

However, the time he walked across the pitch to pick up his cap, he was noticeably moving more freely, and he hopes to be available for Saturday’s home game against Harrogate Town.

Jones said: “I rocked it during a challenge and I didn’t want to go over on it again, so I just thought that it was best to come off, with a big game at the weekend.

“It wasn’t ideal [playing at left-back], but I just got on with it, it’s the only thing you can do, but obviously I’ve shown this year that I can play at centre-half.

“I feel like I’m better in that position because I start a lot from the back and I thought I could have done that today, but I was out on the left and I did what I can do.”

England took the lead twice in what was a competitive match, the first time when Wales defender Nathan Peate turned Luke Trotman’s cut-back into his own net.

The Welsh equalised just after the half-hour when Kayne McLaggon got on the end of a terrific set-piece delivery by Aeron Edwards before FC United’s Kurt Willoughby restored the hosts’ advantage with a low free kick that goalkeeper Alex Ramsey seemed to lose flight of.

It was all square again, however, when substitute Adam Roscow lashed in a terrific finish into the top corner and that’s how it stayed, despite Greg Olley of Gateshead hitting a post with 14 minutes left.

On the match, Jones said: “There were a lot of decent players on show today for both sides.

“I think we took the game to them, we’ve outplayed them and we’ve just had that edge about them, and they’ve scored their two goals not from open play but from them bullying us a little bit, really.

“If we’d dealt with their aerial threat, they didn’t really have anything else and they were struggling to play against us.”