FOOTBALL fans had to dash madly from pub-to-pub in Bromsgrove after a power cut eight minutes before England kicked off against Denmark.

Three hundred people packed out the Turk's Head in Worcester Road to see the match before it became one of the 5,000 places in Bromsgrove and Upton Warren to lose power.

"When the power went off I thought I hadn't paid the bill and then everybody thought it was a joke," said licensee Lisa Watts.

"But when they realised it wasn't a joke they went absolutely mental.

"Fortunately we were using plastic glasses so they just ran to the nearby Sugarbrooke pub."

However, Mrs Watts said they did not make it in time to see the first goal at eight minutes.

"Some of the customers told us there had been a power cut and said people were coming but we didn't believe them," said Julie Rae, assistant manager at the Sugarbrooke in Charford Road in Bromsgrove.

"We were absolutely swamped. We were busy anyway," she said.

Power suppliers Aquila Network were able to restore power to all but 14 of the properties by 1.20pm.

''I used a generator to get the screen going again, but it was really shaky.''

The pub did have power returned by the second half, but England had already scored all three goals.

"Some of the customers did come back for the second half, but I did lose a lot of business" said Mrs Watts.

Spokeswoman for Aquila Network, Beverley Harrington, said Bromsgrove's High Street, Sunningdale Road, Grafton Lane and Broad Street lost power.

"Something brought down one of the overhead lines at about 12.22pm," she said.

"We think it might have been something like a very large tipper truck.

''We will be sending somebody out to investigate how this happened."

The remaining 14 houses had power returned by 5pm on Saturday, June 15.

"We apologise for any inconvenience caused, especially in light of the football but it was beyond our control. Hopefully, this is not going to happen again." said Mrs Harrington.