It was only Friday night and Nick and his mate from Manchester, who'd just arrived from England, were not looking for any trouble. But already they had the feeling they weren't welcome, a fact, they made clear over a few beers in a city centre bar, they were far from happy about.
Clever and articulate, the pair made a passionate case for the majority of their fellow nationals. The small number of trouble makers deserved what they got, they said, but those who had saved hard for the trip since England qualified to play late last year could hardly be held responsible for the crimes of a few louts.
It was hard not to feel sorry for them. They didn't have tickets for this evening's game against Romania but they thought the chance to see the south of France and taste the Coupe du Monde atmosphere was too good to pass up.
It was harder still not to sympathise with the hundreds of South African and Danish supporters the night before, as they sang each others' songs late into the night in the beautiful Place du Concorde. Both groups were friendly and mixed easily but after 11 o'clock they couldn't buy a drink and most of the entertainment planned for them by the city authorities had been cancelled - because the English fans were due in town.
By Saturday night they'd started to arrive in earnest, although in nothing like the enormous numbers that had invaded Marseille a week ago. Still, from just about any street in the centre they could be heard singing "Rule Britannia", chanting "No surrender to the IRA", or "If it wasn't for the English you'd be krauts", not giving much hint of trouble but displaying more than enough disregard for their hosts for the tension to mount anyway.
By yesterday afternoon, however, the local police were growing more optimistic about the situation. With barely any Romanian presence in the city there was no obvious focus for English aggression. The hopes, expressed by just about every interested party over the past few days, that few supporters without tickets would travel seemed close to being realised.
As a result security grew more discreet, with fewer riot police to be seen on the streets and local police keeping a low profile as they kept an eye on their potentially troublesome visitors.
The restrictions on bars and restaurants, which must close by 11 p.m. each night until tomorrow, as well as a ban until then on supermarket sales of alcohol, remained in place. Most of the English fans headed straight for the small number of English-style bars and there was growing confidence that the game would pass off without serious incident. Then, they said, the problem would become Lens's, the city where England play their final group match on Friday.
Nobody was counting any chickens, though, for there is an acute awareness of how little would be needed to spark of an incident. There is still the fear that after a long day's drinking, defeat in tonight's game could be just the spark required to ignite the situation.
Any number of other things could do the trick too - and the spectacularly stupid behaviour of many English supporters still seems to stack the odds heavily against the rest of this World Cup passing off without some repeat of last weekend's appalling scenes.
But back to my two clever pals from Manchester, for instance. A couple of minutes after we had wished each other well and they left the bar I started to make my way back to my hotel. Some 50 yards into the journey I turned a corner and stumbled upon the two of them urinating on a local's car.
I called out something about that sort of thing winning them plenty of friends amongst Toulouse's inhabitants and one looked slightly embarrassed. When Nick looked up and grinned, however, he gave the impression that the owner's return might not be entirely unwelcome. He would, perhaps, make the case that the English should be allowed urinate wherever they like in France. After all, if it wasn't for the English, they'd be krauts.
Agencies add:There were a number of arrests last night as English supporters became involved in minor skirmishes with police.
Meanwhile in Lens, six German supporters were expelled from France and a policeman was reported to be in a coma after being hit by an iron bar following distrubances with Yugoslavia yesterday afternoon.