A GADGET contained in a tin of beer meant World Cup ecstasy for a football-mad councillor.

Little did Michael Malone, deputy leader at Derwentside District Council, know but his tin of Budweiser contained a magic button which activated a transmitter in York.

Within 24 hours British representatives of Budweiser presented teacher Coun Malone, from Consett, with two precious tickets to both the England game against Argentina and the Ireland versus Germany match.

"I've been called a lucky so and so, and much, much worse since it happened last Friday," laughed Coun Malone.

"We'd bought a few tins from Safeway in Consett and left them in the fridge and had a few friends around on Friday night.

"My daughter Jane noticed one of the tins hadn't really got cold. There was a little sign on the top but she ignored that and being a good Malone simply tried to get the beer!

"In the end she and my wife used a tin opener and found this bit of wire with a button on the end.

"When we won the prize we couldn't believe it."

Coun Malone, who teaches in Gateshead, joked that friends had queued round the block to get the spare ticket but in the end he decided to take his wife, Margaret, 'to avoid all the politics.'

He has told friends who will be stuck at home watching the games on television, to look out for the only man wearing a black and white Newcastle United shirt in the crowd.

Sadly, Coun Malone's daughter Jane Gilliead, who actually picked up the tin, will have to make do with a Budweiser promotion hat, he added.