THE lyrics might not quite be the Queen's English but a rousing new anthem by a Southampton band is set to be a hit with patriotic soccer fans.

As England crashed out of the last World Cup in Japan four years ago Mark Smith, 37, and his fellow footie-mad mates turned to each other and said 'savva nuvva' (let's have another). Within weeks of returning to Southampton 'English Pride' were born and the rest, as they say, is history.

Mark, a salesman from Netley, said: "We are just four friends who are fed up with football songs that are all about the players and not the fans.

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"We thought we would write a song about something most adults do when watching the competition, whether it's at home, before or after watching the match live or down the pub. That is to drink beer and we have been working on this song ever since we came back from Japan.

Savva Nuvva Beer is hotly tipped to be the true England fans' anthem with more than 1,500 pre-orders for the CD which has not even been released yet.

The song was penned by Mark, better known as 'Smutz', and band members Rikki Valentine, Jim Garr, and Mat Hudson. It has been produced on their own label Leberwon which is a play on the words 'now rebel'.

The FA are yet to release details of the official England World Cup song with Girls Aloud and McFly among those tipped to feature in it but Mark hopes English Pride's anthem will trounce it.

"We are trying to encompass our love for punk music and bands such as The Clash in the song with the passion associated with the Three Lions song and totally disassociate ourselves from the official release," added Mark.

The song is gaining momentum with some official England fan clubs already adopting it as their World Cup song and the band have even gone to the trouble of translating the lyrics and producing a German version of the song.

Mark said: "The reaction we are getting is phenomenal. We have had a lot of fan clubs saying they want to take our song as their World Cup song, which is fantastic.

"We gatecrashed a German press conference in Anfield where we played a group of German journalists their version of the song and they loved it."

Savva Nuvva Beer is not due to be officially released until May 15 but Mark is hopeful that the pre-release hype and publicity will mean it will do well.

Mark added: "Our dream would be to see England versus Germany in the World Cup final this June and for all the fans to be singing 'English pride ain't dying, St George's flag still flying' which is the main chorus of our song. That would be a dream come true."

To order your copy of Savva Nuvva Beer logon to www.leberwon.com