ENGLAND’S biggest game in a decade is upon us and pubs throughout Basildon and Southend are preparing for their biggest weekend of the year.

Big screens will be set up and bars will be packed as England are set to take on Sweden in Saturday’s World Cup quarter final.

Fiona Dulake, manager of the Railway Hotel in Clifftown Road, Southend says the game will be taking place in the middle of a music festival the pub is hosting, called Pillage Scream.

She said: “We are going to have music upstairs, in the bar and outside.

“The screen’s going to be rolled out for the game and there will be no music in the bar while the game is on, but there will still bands playing upstairs and in the garden, outside.”

Although the game may be the only thing everyone appears to be talking about, Fiona added that Pillage Scream, a stand in for Chalkwell Park’s Village Green Festival which will not be going ahead this year will provide entertainment for non-football fans too.

She said: “It’s going to offer something for everybody so if people don’t want to watch the game, we will have the bands and some lighter acoustic music in the sun.

“I’ve pretty much booked all of my staff in for Saturday, we are going to need everyone for the day.”

The Crane in Denys Drive, Basildon is also expecting to have a packed bar this Saturday after it was very busy for England’s win over Colombia.

Nicki Horton, manager of The Crane was very excited about the day, which she expects to be even bigger than Tuesday’s game.

She said: “It is going to be epic. We are going to be absolutely packed, with each game that has happened it has been more and more busy and now the interest is so high.

“This is definitely the busiest we have been this year, we are even busier now than we were at Christmas.

“We have England flags flying outside and inside the pub and flags for all the other nations in the World Cup, plus there are five big televisions the punters can watch on.

“We will be having more staff for the match as it is going to be so busy.

“We have a small bar, so we normally only have two or three staff on a busy night but this weekend we will have to have five on the bar all day.”