A man adrift at sea in a dinghy has been rescued by lifeboat after early risers watching the World Cup at a Lincolnshire pub raised the alarm.

England fans gathered at the Admiral Benbow on the seafront at Chapel St Leonards spotted the 20-year-old and called the coastguard.

He was drifting out on the tide with nothing but two plastic oars to get him back to dry land.

Peter Newsome of the Skegness Inshore Lifeboat said: "If the pub had not been up and about he might not have been seen at that time of the morning."

Kick-off time

Mr Newsome said he got a call from the Great Yarmouth coastguard at 0720 BST - just as he was settling down to watch the game.

The lifeboat raced out to the scene to find a man in a dinghy some 500 metres off shore.

The crew hauled him on board the lifeboat and got him back uninjured just after kick-off.

"Like most people who go out in these things, he didn't realise the danger he was in," said Mr Newsome.

"But another 10 minutes or so and he'd have realised.

"He owes his life to the person who spotted him and to our lads."