ARSENAL fan Tabitha Sullivan drove while nearly four times over the drink-drive limit because she was angry her team had blown their chances of winning the Premiership this season.

Sullivan, 25, of Ashton Walk, Swindon, was banned from driving for 33 months and sentenced to 203 hours of community punishment after admitting the charge.

Marion Langford, prosecuting, told Kennet magistrates on Tuesday that police had been called to a report of a car that had crashed off the road into a field at Swan Corner, Pewsey, on the evening of April 26.

Officers smelt alcohol in the car and Sullivan, who appeared drunk and was verbally aggressive, failed a roadside breath test.

In an intoxyliser test at a police station, she registered a level of 123 microgrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35.

She told police she had drunk six pints of beer and was supposed to get her mother to drive her home. But she had been watching Arsenal play on the pub TV and was angry that they had lost the match and, as she saw it, blown their chances of winning the league championship.

She decided to drive home.

Stephen Clifford, defending, said Sullivan had had an argument with a former boyfriend that evening and was upset at the result of the match. He said: "She made full admissions and didn't try to evade the issue."

Presiding magistrate Terry Fell said: "The court is grateful that you didn't kill a member of the public or yourself during this incident. I have to tell you, you were within a hair's breadth of going to prison."