UNRULY professional footballers have been blamed for a rise in bad behaviour at boys' matches in Worcester over the last week.

With stories of games abandoned a week ago because of violence and swearing - on and off the pitch - reporter Ian Wishart went undercover to find out how bad it really is.

FISTS flying, F-words and blood-curdling crunching tackles.

Well, no actually, not a bit of it could be seen at the under-nines match between Oldbury Park Tigers and Ombersley Colts in Dines Green on Saturday.

That's not to say this wasn't serious stuff. Just a bit more Tim Henman than John McEnroe.

But maybe that's because the boys' mums and dads were around - although they were taking things just as seriously.

I even spoke to one dad who's son had gone away for the weekend but he was watching to relay the action back to him.

I'd gone expecting to find unruly parents and bloodthirsty players but you'll be pleased to hear that the youth of today are actually quite well-behaved.

No unpleasant jibes about the short-sightedness of the referee or degrading the opposition. "Keep going Tigers!" was about all we got.

"I've got a son in this team and another in the under-12s," said Debbie Murphy, who was getting excited on the touch-line along with the other mums and dads and a Labrador dog.

"We never have any trouble with this lot compared with some of the older boys' matches.

"It's probably by the under-12s that they take the competitiveness that stage further.

"My husband's the assistant manager, so our weekends are dedicated to football. But at least it means the boys don't spend too much time on the PlayStation."

I wanted to ask more but at that point the Tigers launched an attack and the focus of attention switched to more pressing matters.

"Put some more oomph into it Ombersley!" shouted one dad.

They did too and they scored. The scorer did a somersault like one of his heroes and one of the boys later said he wanted to be like Thierry Henry.

The influence of television was not too far away, but probably acting as a force for good, rather than harm.

"It's getting pretty exciting now," said Neil Hobday who proudly told me to mention his son Nathan had scored.

"It's much better disciplined and organised than it was in my day," he said.