England supporters streamed happily out of the stadium in Lens last night after their 2-0 win over Colombia. The town remained tense out of fear that earlier scenes of violence here and elsewhere might be repeated.
Hours earlier on Rue Romuald Pruvost in Lens town centre, an England supporter wore his British flag as a sarong. It was still a full hour before kick-off but he was intent on getting the look just right before he went into the Stade Felix Bollaert.
He was in fine voice as he sang "Rule Britannia, Britannia rules the waves . . . " but he couldn't remember the rest of the words, so he resorted to a diatribe against the Colombians.
In Lens last night the locals peeped out from their windows to watch a colourful and peaceful display of English supporters pass through their streets heading for England's crunch match to decide which team would go through to the last 16 of World Cup '98.
"Ing-er-land, Ing-er-land," they chanted as the fans outside the stadium heard the cheers of their countrymen inside, when first Shearer and then David Beckham scored for England.
Among the shop-owners who decided to open their premises ahead of the game, pizza parlours and coffee shops braved the influx of an estimated 30,000 English supporters to their town, which has a population of only about 35,000.
Off the field, the main worry was the reaction of English fans to the 24-hour ban on the sale of alcohol along a 40-mile corridor of northern France, imposed as fears of a repeat of last week's Marseilles riots grew.
Violence had erupted on Thursday night in Brussels, Bruges, Lille and Ostend. More than 100 fans were arrested, 57 after a drunken rampage in Ostend. Fifty of them were sent home, accompanied by British police, last evening. Yesterday morning a man reported to be "one of Britain's most feared hooligans" was arrested as he tried to leave Dover.
So there was a heavy police presence in Lens, although some relatively minor rioting still took place yesterday afternoon.
The ban, which included a restriction on drinking alcohol on the streets, was also designed to prevent fans buying or drinking alcohol on the cross-channel ferries coming from Dover and once they arrived in France.
However, on a ferry yesterday morning English fans were openly drinking alcohol despite the ban and a public address warning that they would not be allowed to enter France if they were in possession of "excess" alcohol. Once in Lens, fans seemed resigned to the ban, but they also complained bitterly about what they described as a "complete lack of organisation" on the part of the organisers of the World Cup.
For most English fans, the journey to Lens and the mishaps along the way proved more than worthwhile. The British Foreign Office said later 55 people had been arrested in Lens and Lille. Further 351 people were refused entry into France, mainly at Calais, a spokeswoman said.