A YOUNG footballer was stabbed to death in a knife attack that lasted just 20 seconds, the Old Bailey heard yesterday.

Godwin Lawson, 17, died on the spot after a single wound to the heart.

A member of the Oxford United Football and Education Academy, Godwin and two friends were attacked suddenly and without warning by a group of four young men.

He had travelled to London from Oxford to visit friends and family for the weekend.

The teenager was walking home with brothers Julian and Daniel Borja at 1.50am on March 27 last year when they were set upon. Prosecutor Simon Denison QC said Moise Avorgah, 21, Daniel Riley, 22, Koffi Osimeh, 20, and Matthew Lanihun, 21, were responsible for the attack.

The close friends had been in a car together when they spotted Godwin and his friends in Amhurst Park in Stamford Hill, north London.

“They stopped the car in a side road, got out and ran to intercept the three of them,” said the prosecutor.

“The attack was immediate, it was brutal and it was very quick.”

Julian Borja, 20, was stabbed in the stomach and the back. His brother, 18, suffered wounds to his back, elbow, side and buttock. Despite their injuries they survived, jurors were told.

Godwin suffered a single wound to the front of his chest. Mr Denison said he collapsed within a few moments and he died on the pavement.

Jurors were told the four men stood trial in January and Avorgah, of St Ann’s Road, Tottenham, and Lennox Road, Finsbury Park, had been convicted of Godwin’s murder and of attacking the brothers – but the original jury failed to reach verdicts for the other three, who now face a retrial.

Riley, of Caledonian Road, Holloway; Lanihun, of Megan Court, Holloway and Osimeh, of Heron Drive, Finsbury Park; each deny murder and two counts of wounding with intent.

The trial continues.