EXTRA police had to be brought in on Sunday night after drunk and disappointed football fans kept officers run off their feet with fights breaking out all over north Wiltshire.

England's 1-1 draw in their first World Cup game against Sweden on Sunday morning did not go down well with fans and reports of fights outside pubs were being reported by about 3pm.

Safe in the knowledge they did not have to get up for work on Monday or Tuesday because of the jubilee bank holidays, many started drinking heavily before the kick-off at 10.30am.

And with England's much-hyped match against Argentina taking place tomorrow lunchtime, police will be carefully monitoring the situation and making decisions on whether or not to deploy more officers.

Detective Sergeant Nic Shorten of Chippenham CID said: "Sunday was a difficult evening for the police, with fights kicking off all over the place in Chippenham, Calne and Corsham.

"Officers had to deal with a lot of public order offences.

"Nearly every incident that came in after 3pm was a fight or a public order offence of some kind, and if that's how they behave when there's a draw, who knows what it will be like when England lose a game?

"There is a lot of trepidation about Friday's match."

He added: "I think the key issue is that people knew they didn't have to get up for work the next day and that's going to be the case on Friday for most people too."

Inspector Steve Hedley, who was on duty over the weekend, said it was impossible to plan for how football fans would react to the outcome of a game but extra officers had been available if needed.

He said three extra officers were kept on on Sunday night and eight officers from west Wiltshire were patrolling in a van and were available to be called out to Chippenham if the need had arisen.

"We will be monitoring the situation in the run-up to Friday and if it looks like it's going to go stupid again like it did on Sunday then we will keep extra officers on," said Insp Hedley.

"You cannot plan for these things, but just watch and see how it develops and take it from there."

jbishop@newswilts.co.uk