THE father of a young man stabbed eight times in Royton Park says the attacker should have received the full 11-year jail sentence.

The life of Joshua Tindal – who suffered a collapsed lung - life was only saved after an off-duty nurse ran to help and told his friends not to move him.

Garyn Allen, of Bardsley, was convicted at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court of wounding and carrying an offensive weapon and was given an eight-year prison sentence by Judge Mark Savill.

Initially, his father Mark praised the length of the sentence, but said “on reflection” he thought Allen, also aged 19, should have received the maximum term for the crime.

Mark told The Oldham Times: “If you’re old enough to carry a knife and use it like he did, you’re old enough to do the time in jail.”

And he went on to say Allen was lucky he was not facing an attempted murder charge.

“It was caught on CCTV and lasted about 30 seconds. Josh thought it was a fist fight, but only later realised he had been stabbed and collapsed.

“It was a pre-arranged fight. Allen was stupid to carry a knife – but he could have killed my son.

"My son must learn from this too. He knows he should defend himself, but look what happened.

"Friends who were with Josh ran after Allen who went to a house where he thought a friend was after the stabbing. There was a nurse at the property. Josh's friends told her Allen had stabbed him. She grabbed a bag and ran to where Josh was.

"His friends, with the best of intentions were planning to drive him to Oldham hospital. But as soon as the nurse examined she could tell he had a collapsed lung and insisted that he should not be moved - that could well have saved his life."

The pre-arranged fight took place in the early evening of February 18 this year.

"He thought he was going to a fist fight as a friend was being bullied and he went to sort it out," said Mark.

Trainee stone mason and ex-Oasis Academy pupil Josh and Allen had a phone conversation the day before when they had arranged to meet to resolve a dispute over a small debt his friend had with Allen.