England's Football Association did not provide any tickets for Saturday's 2-1 win in Skopje and will not take up their allocation for the game in Istanbul, having pleaded with fans to stay away from both matches for fear of crowd trouble.

But the fact that several hundred England fans defied those calls and bought black market tickets from Macedonians was a matter of deep concern to David Swift, head of a British police delegation in Skopje.

Speaking hours before Saturday's game, he told a news conference: "Turkey's a completely different game, a completely different environment, a completely different set of circumstances.

"Macedonia and England don't have a history of competing against each other, there's no success or failure to both teams as a consequence of the game and there is no tradition of European club level games between Macedonia and England.

"And we're talking about a stadium and an environment which is fundamentally different.

"So my personal plea to those here, and those who may be thinking of travelling to Turkey, is 'heed the advice of your government and Football Association'.

"They have made professional judgements in the best interests of English football and the safety and security of...individuals.

"Heed the advice, don't travel to Turkey."

SUBSEQUENTLY UNDERMINED

That advice was subsequently undermined to some extent, though, by England players who went over to applaud their fans after Saturday's game in Skopje.

The match in Istanbul is destined to be one of the most tense ever faced by an England team.

On the pitch, it will decide who qualifies for Euro 2004 automatically as Group Seven winners and who goes into the play-offs.

England would need only a draw to top the group, assuming they beat Liechtenstein on Wednesday at Old Trafford as expected.

But off the pitch, England risk being kicked out of next year's tournament by UEFA if there is a repeat of the crowd trouble which marred their 2-0 home win over Turkey in April.

Racist abuse of Turkey players by sections of the Sunderland crowd, two pitch invasions and trouble outside the ground that led to 95 arrests prompted a UEFA fine and a warning over future conduct.

Relations between the two sets of supporters have plumbed even worse depths at club level, with two Leeds United fans having been stabbed to death during clashes in Istanbul before a UEFA Cup semi-final first leg against Galatasaray in 2000.

There was further trouble between English and Turkish fans in the run-up to Galatasaray's subsequent victory over Arsenal in the final in Copenhagen.