THOUSANDS of pints were sunk in Worcester last night as jubilant fans celebrated England's World Cup win against Argentina.

Fans with faces painted as Union Jacks and wrapped in St George's crosses, flocked to city pubs and bars to celebrate David Beckham's crucial penalty.

Today, the council launched a huge clean-up after the party spilled over into the early hours.

"We sold about 3,000 pints, plus bottles," said Denzil Carlton, licensee at RSVP in The Cross. "Everyone got carried away when Beckham scored. We had people spraying beer from the balcony."

Pubs opened early to cope with the demand and closed an hour after the 1-0 win to clean up before last night's revellers arrived - but the streets were still teeming when they re-opened, three hours later.

"I'm going to carry on celebrating," said Neil Kew, who watched at The Exchange, Cornmarket. "We've been looking forward to this night for four years."

PE teacher Nigel Ford said England were going on to the final: "It was a fantastic result. Let's maintain it to the next round."

Scotsman Keith Allan, of The Slug and Jug in the Cornmarket, switched his allegiance to root for the England team: "The atmosphere was superb, but the mess was worse than New Year."

A police spokesman said the atmosphere had been amiable, with just "one or two skirmishes.

"It was busy, but we're very pleased," he said.

A fifth of Britain's workforce were estimated to have had the day off to watch the game, while many employers across the city had installed TVs for staff to watch the clash. England's last group game is against Nigeria on Wednesday, June 12 at 7.30am.

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