ILMINSTER NEWS: Aerial man Barry’s on the ball for the Royal Oak

THE landlady of a popular Ilminster pub has thanked a TV aerial repair man for producing a man-of-the-match performance – just hours before England kicked-off a big match in the European Championships.

The Royal Oak in Ditton Street is a popular venue for football supporters and the pub was all set for a busy night on Tuesday (June 20, 2016) for England’s group match with Slovakia which was to start at 8pm.

Everything was fine when suddenly the pub lost TV signal at 4.30pm and Royal Oak landlady Cindy Rutter suddenly felt sick as the proverbial football parrot knowing that there would be a lot of unhappy footie fans if things were not rectified.

But the Royal Oak team remained calm and did not panic – they would be perfect to take the spot-kicks in one of those dreaded penalty shoot-outs – and they came up with a plan.

PHOTO - TOP: The Royal Oak in Ditton Street, Ilminster, was without any TV signal just hours before England's European Championship match with Slovakia on Tuesday.

And that plan included Ilminster’s very own Barry Watkins Aerials who was drafted into the Royal Oak’s starting line-up at short notice and produced an amazing performance.

Barry weaved some of his magic and thankfully normal service was resumed at the Royal Oak – much to the relief of Cindy and everyone else at the pub.

“I would just like to say a huge thank you to Barry Watkins for putting himself out to come and repair our TV system,” she said.

“We wouldn’t have had any pictures for the football last night. Thank you again for an excellent service.”

Cindy told the Ilminster Press: “He is an absolute star for coming to our rescue yesterday. Small businesses like himself need credit where it is due – he was very professional.”

Although Barry got the TV system back working again – not even he could inspire England to beating Slovakia, as the game finished in a frustrating 0-0 draw.

Hopefully everything will be ok for England's next game on Monday (June 27, 2016) evening which kicks-off at 8pm and could be against either Hungary, Iceland, Portugal or Austria.

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