Tris

With all due respect you ought to be and so should everyone else. Multi-tasking and a flexible workforce is a manadatory requirement in most work places these days - with a small staff such as the one at Ewood I would have thought it essential. Even Mr Williams might get his hands "dirty" occasionally. All hands to the pumps in the areas of greatest need ! So if needed you can nip down to the printing works and run off 3 million copies of the Sun (or its cousin the tabloid Times) ?? I think not.

Check out <<this thread>> - there are a number of London based fans heading to the game. Like you, I need to be back in London on Wednesday morning, so will probably be splitting petrol costs with roversyoyo, who lives down the road and also needs to be back in work on Weds. Prior to that I was doing this - National Express overnight leaves Darwen Bus Station 2255 arrives Golders Green 0555 - cheap but tiresome.

And according to <<this>>, the arrangements for the possible Leicester game are already in place (should we go through).

The hill trolls only have 500 left. On sale at the ticket window at 9.15 and on the phones at 9.30 tomorrow morning.

Postal application?? Takes 3 1/2 minutes.

Stu, get a few cans from Bargain Booze and sit on the steps by MacDonalds

But it would have been closed anyway, along with all the other licensed premises in the area. So they may as well use the space for 500 club members.

CUP TICKET SCHEME!!!!

This is a very astute observation which I for one hadn't considered. To back it up, look at the "most hated people in football" thread. Souness gets 12 nominations (at time of posting). Not even a hint of a mention for (eg) Iley, Hodgson or Kidd. When asked to be negative, people can barely see past last week never mind consider "all time".

As I said before though, if there are people who want to go but can't get tickets then the club are just losing money - something we can't afford to do. The second the 5th round draw was made arrangements should have started to be put in place to deal with the possibility of a replay. One of these arrangements should have been to ensure that all possible demand for tickets was met as much as possible. I'm not sure that's been done so far. Easy way to discover if you're right or wrong. ANYONE WHO WANTS TICKETS BUT FAILS TO GET THEM BY CLOSE OF PLAY MONDAY PLEASE POST HERE

What a load of rubbish. Clearly you got left on Fleet Street when your entire profession buggered off to Canary Wharf. Let's give the playing department a ring, and get all the first team back from Dubai to man the phones. The club was clearly prepared for the possibility of a replay - the ticketing arrangements were released before I got home from Burnley, the "blueprint for high profile games" is already in place, and with 5 full days to go, it's barmy to suggest that anyone should be working round the clock to sell tickets.

Hasta, I'm playing devils advocate to a certain extent. As has already been pointed out, fans of other clubs have to send off blank cheques, drive hundreds of miles, get "fan cards", etc etc etc ... and regularly go through what Rovers fans are experiencing now just to get tickets for Crystal Palace or West Brom away in the league! Rovers fans face this situation once every blue moon (eg Burnley and Celtic since the turn of the century) and yet all hell goes off if the phones aren't answered within 10 minutes. Fine - you (and others) chose not to do the cup scheme for good reasons. So now, you have the opportunity to buy tickets but you may have to sacrifice a bit of time and effort. I'm afraid that's life.

??????? automatic cup ticket scheme ???????

I'm sorry but I have absolutely no sympathy whatsoever with Season Ticket holders who are moaning about having a struggle to claim their own seats. If you're all so bothered about it, why haven't you opted for the home cup scheme???? Ah - because you didn't think we'd draw Burnley. Ah - because you didn't fancy having a tenner leave your bank accounts in order to watch the likes of Colchester. Well tough - we have drawn Burnley. You lot have opted to pick and choose your cup games so you have to slum it with us non-season ticket holders in the queue for tickets, be that at Ewood or on the phone. And stop this bloody moaning about the ticket office staffing levels. There is no other fixture - NOT ONE - which would cause this level of demand. Some of the whingers on here appear to be suggesting that Rovers should be fully geared up to respond to a situation which last happened 45 YEARS AGO!! Yet week after week after week after week, the existing ticket office staff have little to do, and anyone calling in for whatever tickets gets answered within 3 or 4 seconds on the phone, and at the ground there is rarely a queue of more than a couple of folk. None of this is rocket science, yet people are once again picking holes in the club without even stopping to think about the circumstances.

You're joking. You? You had an argument??

The exact same thing happened yesterday The first two coaches on the near side of Belvedere Road after the game - 45 and 46 - got the best view. A pair of dingle youth walking down the other side of the road trying to look hard - CLONK!! One of them goes straight into the signpost. There were still dickheads getting arrested at that corner even just before the coaches set off for trying to take on the police. Do they not have their own beds to sleep in?

Someone from admin has been giving interviews!!!!

Derbyometer clickety clickety click East Lancashire is leaving that crap Scottish game trailing

Oh ****. I can't vote in this - I'm staying chez Debs and Gav (that's in alphabetical order Gav!!) on Saturday night. Actually I might try the Fernhurst?!

Because Liverpool's involvement in the Carling Cup Final means that Rovers have a clear weekend following this massive cup game, Mark Hughes has the perfect opportunity to really treat this fixture with the respect and vital importance it deserves. Even a replay would take place before our next Premier League fixture, so it'll be our strongest team and I expect that training this week will be focussed only with this fixture in mind. Hughes has shown he can set tactics to suit every occasion. He's played in two of these particular "occasions" wearing blue and white (in the league) ... and in so many big FA cup occasions I've lost count. So I fully expect a proper performance and a respectable victory. I'm not into predicting scores - so I'll just predict a Rovers win.

Going on the train is ridiculous - complete waste of time. a ) There are only two trains you can get from Blackburn - 1035 or 1235 (unless you're a complete twot and fancy the 0835). b ) Because of that Lancs police have the easiest task - meet those two trains at Burnley, block the station exits, and you'll all get walked straight to the ground. c ) Even if ( b ) doesn't happen - which it will - if you get the early train you'll be in Burnley an hour before the pubs open. If you get the later one you'll miss the game unless you head straight for Turf Moor. d ) Those little trains are sh!te. They hold about 100 people. The bigger trains (that go to Burnley Manchester Rd) are replaced by buses on Sunday. So there's every chance that too many people will turn up for the 1235, it'll be full, you won't get to Burnley at all. And you could have been ferried to the turnstiles for free, on an executive coach from Ewood. Oh well, enjoy the game.

He is flying to Barca to play in a meaningless friendly on Tuesday. He had better be in full fitness for Sunday. Maybe he'll learn a couple of tricks off Zidane. Incidentally, the game is live tomorrow night on ITV2 at 8pm.

Oops - it was 2000 (December 17th). An absence of just 1,526 days. Of which there are only 6 left to wait!!!!!!

You just keep your head down in there

53 for me