A football fanatic missed out on a £250,000 jackpot... due to a last minute goal by West Ham United.

Instead of taking home the top prize, unlucky Ian Alger, who lives in Basildon, won £5,000. It was later doubled by popular Sky Sports presenter Jeff Stelling, who took pity on him live on air.

Mr Alger had played the online Super 6 game and correctly predicted the results of five matches - Bournemouth v Watford 2-2, Crystal Palace v Everton 0-1, Stoke v Manchester United 1-1, West Bromwich v Sunderland 2-2 and Derby v Reading 3-2.

Mr Alger was literally a minute away from winning the bumper prize when West Ham’s striker Jonathon Calleri scored in the 94th minute against Middlesbrough to make the final result 3-1.

It meant Mr Alger’s prediction of 2-1 was blown - with him winning £5,000 instead of the £250,000 jackpot he was in the running to take home.

Jeff Stelling, Sky Sports presenter, broke the bad news during the popular Soccer Saturday programme, saying: “It’s a bittersweet day for our winner. His name is Ian Alger and he comes from Basildon. Well done to you Ian.

“After 94 minutes when Wayne Rooney scored he had six correct scores and £250,000 in the pocket.

“Jonathon Calleri’s goal in the 95th minute has cost him £245,000.

“So, Ian, you’ve won the £5,000 but it could have been so much more.”

But happily for Mr Alger, Stelling’s fellow presenters began shouting about how unlucky it was to be just a minute away from winning the jackpot and urged Stelling to help him out - and he eventually agreed to dig deep after a minute of protests.

Despite originally insisting he wouldn’t add anymore money to the total won by Mr Alger, Mr Stelling finally announced he would put his hand into his own pocket and add another £5,000 to the pot. This brought Mr Alger’s winnings to a total of £10,000.

The Super 6 game sees football fans trying to predict the correct scores of six selected matches to be in with a chance of winning the jackpot.

Points are given to those taking part depending on whether they guess the winning results of a match or predict the actual final score.

If no one predicts all six scores correctly, the guaranteed prize of £5,000 goes to the person with the highest score of the round.