To be fair to Jas I doubt any of us can really say what went on behind the Darwen End. I'm sure the police felt justified in going in to deal with whatever (drunks, abuse) they saw but I'm also sure that innocent Celts got caught up in it. As for the forged tickets, I know Crewe had a credit card style season ticket in 1993! This could be the answer. Not sure how this works for Matchday Tickets though.

Or the pillock, depending on your viewpoint.

The only gripe i've got with Rovers is as I've stated elsewhere. they said, as always, away fans would be ejected from the home areas but in most instances it doesn't happen. Why can't they have an extra steward & copper on each stairwell who ejects the away fans. I don't agree with kicking the fan from behind on his way out but I do agree with us chucking them out ourselves.

Rovers official site has announced this morning that big Brad is to have his operation on his knee after the game on Sunday. This will mean he misses the Charlton and Fulham games. The injury first came to light to Rovers fans in the warm up for the Arsenal game and, although Brad has been magnificent since then, the club seem to have decided it would be better to clear the problem up rather than risk making it worse.

Bit harsh

Forgot about him. What a nob. He embarrased the Rovers fans and got laughed at by the Celtic fnas. Well done mate!!

Where do I start?? First of all I'm fortunate I never stated how well we played in the first leg because I honestly believed Celtic played way below what they could do. I cringed over the last fortnight at the Rovers fans saying we'll hammer you second leg because the chances were that we would not play that well again (we didn't against Villa, Saints) and that Celtic would play better. As with most Rovers fans I believe over the 2 legs we have the better players. However there is something still missing within the club that has led us not to be the team that is best at getting the right result. Credit to Celtic, they came and showed the first leg to be all wrong.Larrson's finish was top class. We've restricted Celtic to giving their star player just 2 chances throughout the 2 games but he's stuck them both in the back of the net. Could we say the same about Cole? In the second half we threw caution to the wind, created nothing and Celtic exposed us at the back. Beofre the game all the Celtic fans I spoke to on the streets and in the pub were very friendly. Strange how many of them we're from England with English accents but they were still passionate about the club. Every one of them wanted to chat about football and despite their obvious intoxication were a great laugh. Any complaints?? Yep I've got 2. 1) Sorry lads but that was not the loudest away following I've heard in the Darwen end. Newcastle and especially City (in 2000) were FAR louder. 2) (And probably controversially) Nearly every Celtic fan I spoke to said 'You'll hear us singing songs about supporting the IRA. Don't be offended cos we don't mean anything by it.' We'll dont sing them then. You wouldn't go to brixton and say 'You'll hear us singing songs about supporting the Klu Klux Klan. Don't be offended cos we don't mean anything by it.' Anyway I'm going away tommorow morning till Sunday night (yep I miss the Everton game ). However this means I won't have to read the obvious rubbish from Jas and his mates. To the rest of the decent Celtic fans (Pete, SMc & Co) well done lads and good luck.

I'm with SteB on this one. We played outstanding last Thursday but got beat. We'll have to live with it. In fact it's strange that we got more credit in defeat than we normally get in victory. As for Celtic they looked poor but we've looked poor in certain games before. You can't judge a side on 1 game. There's still 1 game to go in which Rovers can try to finsih the job and convert their superiority so far into an actual victory. There's also still 1 game to go for Celtic to show there first leg showing was all wrong by matching and bettering Rovers at Ewood. I feel what will happen will lie somewhere in between these two scenarios with the winner going through by 1 goal (or god forbid away goals). Altough I wasn't at Celtic for the first game the atmosphere seemed very poor but a Celtic fan has already admitted elsewhere this was down to disbelief in how well Rovers / badly celtic played. Where the boot on the other foot, as for long periods of the Villa game yesterday, we'd hardly raise the roof would we! A final prediction. Souness O'Neill

Sorry to dig this old fossil of a thread up but does anyone know how the tickets for the home game are selling. I honestly thought the sold out signs would be up by now although I suppose a lot of people will want to buy them at Ewood today.

I hate Steel, I can't remmber getting in last night! Anyway typical Rovers performance excpet for last night we weren't putting the shots high and wide someone was getting as arse or a leg in the way. Why was it that after 5 minutes the only fans you could hear were Rovers fans. Great atmosphere! Not wishing to name names but Tiny Oh dear When was the last time we went to an away game in the Premiership and bossed it that much? I hate stella

As tickets for the non season ticket holders are now on sale anyone know what the demand was like this morning. My dad wants to go but is still stuck in the 60's and 'doesn't believe in them credit card thingies' so I'm going to have to either phone up for him or go down in the car for him tommorow.

In that case i stand corrected. However i could probably name you only 3 more Celtic players as to be honest the media coverage of games from Scotland in the national press down here is minimal. Because Lennon, Gupppy & Co have gone up from England I think the English press give them slightly more attention hence my belief they were 'stars'. Cos let's be honest, if guppy's a star then there's something amiss. :'>

Look at the Sofia game. Because Sofia scored and it was 1-1 it meant we had to score in the away leg and forced us to be more attacking (not that we need forcing). Obviously 0-0 is better than any defeat but I feel our chance may be in the away leg when Celtic will come at us all guns blazing. Our game won't be and can't be to soak up all celtic pressure. We'll just collapse a la City. Best to go at them and try and win the game. I'm sure Celtic will score over the 2 legs. If the first leg finished 0-0 this means that we'd have to score 2 at Ewood.

If he'd been to EVERY home game then he's a bit thick cos he might as well buy a season ticket! Also surely someone as commited as jordan who goes to every away game will have a season ticket anyway. I agree with the principle of a points scheme but buying a season ticket should give you a hell of a lot of points straight away, say the equivalent of travelling to 8 away games..

Bryan - a 0-0 away result would not be a lgreat result. In Europe these days away goals are proving more crucial than ever. If we drew 0-0 we'd probably have to score at least 2 in the home game as there's no way we'll keep Larsson & Sutton quiet for 180 minutes. Waggy - i know what your saying about our European home form but I think this game will be feel more like a traditional English cup tie than a European one due to the atmosphere. Still, when was the last time we won a cup tie at Ewood when the opposition brought a large following??

People like Lennon, Guppy and Hartson are average Premiership players. If they were up for sale now there's actually probably only Lennon that would guarantee premiership interest. However in Scotland they're stars. They're a mid-table PremierLeague team and at Ewood we will win. However a lot depends on how we handle Parkhead. As Rovers fans will be outnumbers 20-1 the atmosphere is likely to be intense in their favour and after the capitulation at City and especially in Sofia we could have problems. It's another night for players like Neil and Taylor to show they've not only got the ability but also the bottle to make it at a high level. If Duffy was playing I'd be confident. As it is I wouldn't like to call it even though I believe we have the better team. I agree we need to score at Parkhead though, any defeat with us not scoring and i fear that's the end of it.

Fair enough but Rovers stated in the season ticket booklet that ST holders will have preference over non-season ticket holder for cup games. So far I've been to City and Boro this year. I've stumped up £350 up front for my season ticket and have paid to attend every game whether I go or not. I'm sorry but if I wasn't entitled to a ticket for Liverpool away on Boxing Day because non ST holders who'd been to say 5 away games this season got one I'd be fuming.

Because if we'd only offered them a few thousand unless they increased the 2,800 allocation, they would have realised that unless they agreed their fans would have been very disgruntled to say the least. If man U got Celtic in the Uefa Cup (or Champions league if the rules are the same), they'd only need to give 5% of the ground which would be 3,500 tickets. Can you imagine several bodies including the manc police forcing Utd to give over a whole stand. i don't think so. Your Town, Your Team, Celtics' Tickets.

Yeah, what we need is someone to act as a public spokesman for the fans in the press to let the Rovers know how strong the feeling is about this. Anyone know who could achieve this :'> :'>

Tom Finn has just been on Radio Lancs claiming that Rovers were never offered the so called 'Rangers allocation' ie 7500. He also stated that initially Celtic did not even want to give Rovers the minimum 5%! Apparently when Rovers asked if there was a possability of more than 3,000, Celtic claimed they had already sold a number of the 'Rangers allocation' to their own fans, so it was never a possability that Rovers would be offered any more. Finally he stated that the club was going to review it's ticketing policy for future 'big away games' and hoped to introduce a scheme whereby loyal away fans were rewarded. Unfortunatly, in this case, it looks as if 'the stable door has been shut after the horse has bolted!' I could accept that explanation were it not for the fact that the Club stated their belief the 2,800 allocation would be more than sufficient when the ticket details were made Public. Exactly whats got to me Rev. The club could have hid behind the 5% and wouldn't budge story from the start. Why therefore release a statement saying they believed 2800 should / could be sufficient?

Now the dust has settled a few points on all this. 1) I'm gutted . I've being looking forward to this game like mad for over a week now and just feel flat. I knew from the initial announcement of 2,800 tickets i was in trouble as I had to be in work today. People 'reassuring' me I'd get one didn't convince me and at 12.30pm today it dawned on me I wan't going. At least I've not booked hotels / flights. 2) I'm not as guttted as jordan. I got to 5 or 6 away games a year. I feel that as a ST older I'm entitled to a good chance of getting a ticket. If I'd been to 100 consecutive games or whatever i'd expect a ticket posting to me for games like this. 3) BlueFlush, you're bang out of order. 4) Thanks to Lee for posting the info he has done. He's got his own board to take care of now and really doesn't need to bother coming on here. The fact that he still does and tries to relay what is going on is much appreciated (even if he has to tow the official line now :'> ). Give the man a PR job. 5) Whats done is done. This appears to be the first big mistake Rovers have mad whilst Finn / Williams has been in charge. I just hope they learn from it as Finn has reportedly say they will. Loyalty schemes and even more press releases to keep everyone clear whats going on. As for the home leg, I fear that on October 31st, the day of the first leg, when the tickets go on sale to non Season Ticket holders interest will be phenominal. I expect similar scenes and scenarios to that today. Everyone who's at parkhead give 'em a shout for me!

Who took Tris up on the bet?

John Williams said of the 2,800 allocation "We hope this will prove sufficient". Well this mornings activity make his comment look naive at best and f****** stupid at worst. I'm presuming all bar the very restriced views are sold. I've been redialling since 9.00 (apart from a 45 minute break) and no luck.

Someone tell them to put the phone back on the hook!

This time tommorow it'll all be over and we'll know who's going and who's not. Is it just me or because it's going cold and frosty ouside is it starting to feel like 'real' footy weather.