Image copyright SNS Image caption Ross County won an ill-tempered match 2-1

A television channel delayed transmission of a Scottish Premiership football match until after the watershed because of the amount of swearing that could be heard from fans.

Ross County's match with St Mirren was supposed to have been broadcast "as live" by BBC Alba at 17:30 on Saturday.

But the transmission was delayed until 22:55.

The channel had been concerned the amount of bad language would have breached Ofcom guidelines.

BBC Alba had no choice but to defer broadcast of today's Ross County v St Mirren match until post-watershed due to bad language picked up from the crowds. BBC Alba spokeswoman

BBC Alba, which is the BBC's Scottish Gaelic language channel, had been scheduled to broadcast the match in its entirety shortly after the final whistle.

But it decided to delay the transmission after realising that bad language could clearly be heard on its microphones, which were placed around the ground.

A tweet by the managing director of mneTV, which was producing the broadcast for BBC Alba, said: "Unfortunately @TheStaggies v @saintmirrenfc won't transmit on #BBCALBA at 5.30pm due to bad language from crowd. Will be on at 11pm. Sorry!"

The message was retweeted by BBC Alba's official feed.

A spokeswoman for BBC Alba later said the delay to the transmission had allowed producers to edit out the bad language.

She added: "In compliance with the rules set by Ofcom, where no programme that carries offensive language can be broadcast pre-watershed, BBC Alba had no choice but to defer broadcast of today's Ross County v St Mirren match until post-watershed due to bad language picked up from the crowds."

More than 3,000 fans attended the game at the Global Energy Stadium in Dingwall, which Ross County won 2-1.

Ross County manager Derek Adams and his St Mirren counterpart Danny Lennon had to be pulled apart after confronting each other on the touchline as tempers frayed during the match. They were both sent to the stand by referee Willie Collum.

BBC Scotland sports reporter Jim Spence later tweeted: "Bad language delays transmission of BBC Alba Ross Co v St Mirren game tonight. that's ###@@@€€€€#### ridiculous".