Football mad fans in Finsbury have adorned their 26-storey block of flats with huge flags of St George ahead of England's Euros final match against Italy on Sunday.

Tony Watson, Terry Smith, and Micky McGinty, spent nearly two hours tying the massive flags onto the balcony rail of each floor of Peregrine House in Hall Street, hoping the patriotic display will spur England on to victory in Euro 2020.

Tony told the Gazette: "Me, Terry and Mickey all grew up as kids, and we've known each other for 40 years, and we have watched football together over the years.

"I'm Arsenal, Mickey Tottenham, and Terry is Chelsea, and we all used to follow our teams at home and abroad.

"We said, 'Why don't we decorate the block so we put £20 in each, and bought the flags, and then we got together and spent and hour and a half going from the top down."

The sight of them has generated a positive response.

"The general public have been walking past and taking photos themselves, and residents in the block have put a notice up," said Tony.

"I thought I had received a notice of complaint but on reading it it says how nice it looks and well done."

He will be watching the final with his family at a friend's house, where they all watched Wednesday's match against Denmark together.

"We had all the kids with us, and we all had our face painted, and all had our England shirts on," said Tony, who's very excited about Sunday.

"I'm looking forward to it but nervous because we haven't been to a major tournament for 55 years, since 1966.

"It hasn't happened in our lifetimes to get to the final of a major tournament.

He added: "This has brought the whole country together. After coronavirus with no one being able to get out, this has brought a smile to everyone's faces to get out and watch a game.

"We are a close community, and even this morning coming out of the block people have been asking, 'Are you looking forward to Sunday?' and 'What do you think the score will be?'

"I said before the tournament, we've got the players to win it, we've just got to go and win it.

"If you are going to win it you have got to be the best. Italy are always in the finals, so we've got to play well to beat them."