It looked set to be a glorious day as thousands of English football fans descended on the beach in Marseille.

For those fans who had been unable to buy tickets for the nation's first game the sunny beach on which the Mayor of Marseilles had erected a large screen was the perfect place to support their national team.

Before the match kicked off the English fans joined in a game of their own as Tunisian supporters challenged them to a friendly game of football on the beach.

But as the England game kicked off and Shearer scored the first goal the mood turned sour as the hoards of Tunisians who were by now standing at the top of a stand opposite the screen began to throw glass bottles into the crowd of jubilant England fans.

Rushing down from the stand armed with the plastic chairs they had ripped from the stand the Tunisians, mainly young men and women, ran at the English causing the crowd which included English families with toddlers dressed in the country's strip to dash for cover.

Heading for the beach I turned to look back and see the England fans clash with the Tunisians.

After the trouble which had taken place just the night before it was something of a surprise to see there was not one French policeman in sight. In fact it was more than five minutes before the French police arrived with CS gas and cleared the beach.

As the English and Tunisians continued to charge we ran for cover along the street with the sound of the exploding CS canisters ringing in our ears.

As the fighting fans continued to tear along the streets towards us we made our way up an unknown side street which we hoped would lead back to our hotel before the stadium gates opened at the end of the match.

Back in the safety of our hotel rooms we listened in amazement as French TV reporters criticised English fans putting the blame firmly on our shoulders for that afternoon's trouble. Having travelled all the way to France from York to watch the match in Marseille we had actually seen just half the game - having spent the rest of the game fleeing the trouble.

Many of the genuine English supporters I spoke to said it was the first and last time they would travel abroad to support their country.

There was a real feeling of unfairness at the way the English fans had been blamed for all the trouble.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.