A PUB boss who went out of her way to help vulnerable people at the start of the coronavirus pandemic is fuming at being wrongly brought into an Old Firm football fans row.

Dianne Irving, who runs the award-winning The Crown, the historic Howard Arms and newly-refurbished Milbourne Arms - all in Carlisle - received national acclaim when she delivered meals to the vulnerable across the city at the start of the Covid-19 outbreak.

But this weekend Dianne found herself wrongly dragged into a Covid controversy about football fans heading to Carlisle from Scotland to watch the Celtic versus Rangers clash on TV.

News and Star:

One fan posted on social media that he’d organised a 49-seater coach from Dalkeith near Edinburgh so that Celtic and Rangers fans - unable to watch the game in a pub in Scotland due to lockdown - could travel south of the border to watch Saturday’s game on TV at the Howard Arms in Carlisle.

But Dianne, who runs the Howard Arms in Carlisle, knows nothing about the football fans’ trip.

She says they must have meant a different pub because the Howard Arms in Carlisle doesn’t even show live football on TV.

And the historic city centre pub wouldn’t even have room to accommodate 49 people given it is restricted to table service due to coronavirus rules.

News and Star:

Dianne said: “We know absolutely nothing about this. We never heard from this person. We didn’t have any group bookings. We don’t even show live sport at The Howard!

“We haven’t had any Rangers or Celtic fans in the pub this weekend. When you work night and day to make sure you are complying with every regulation, only for someone to put a post on social media, wrongly naming our pub, it’s infuriating. We want people to know we have nothing to do with this.”