BORO fans have been praised by club officials for making the Riverside Stadium one of the safest in the country as preparations for next week's England game continue.

Fears about crowd trouble at the Euro 2004 qualifier with Slovakia to be held on Teesside have been growing ever since violence flared at the Turkey game in Sunderland.

Middlesbrough Football Club has revealed there were 69 arrests during their home games last season and just 13 of those were home supporters.

Rather than being for hooliganism, the vast majority of the arrests were for relatively minor offences such as drunkenness.

Club stewards ejected 46 people from the stadium - 32 of them were visiting fans.

Club safety officer Ron Turnbull said: "When you consider that almost 600,000 people came through the turnstiles over the course of the season, these figures are really very impressive. It equates to an average of just over three arrests per game.

"They reflect very well on the behaviour of the vast majority of Middlesbrough supporters and on the high standard of stewarding and policing we have on match days.

"We have a strict policy of taking forceful action against individuals whose behaviour is racist or generally anti-social and will continue to do so next season."

Cleveland Police have warned fans without a ticket to stay away from Teesside.

They have allocated 500 officers to police the game, promising to clamp down early on any signs of trouble and will have patrols on the town centre's streets throughout the day.