Vitoria is the closest but only direct flights available from Stansted. Bilbao is not too far and has more options.

Pamplona does have it's own airport but you only seem to be able to fly on Iberia, probably via Madrid for £250+. Vitoria Gasteiz is nearest, but Biarritz in France is also nearer than Bilbao. Santander, a bit further away, would be another option.

The draw tomorrow is 11.00 a.m. for the Champions League and 12.00 for the UEFA Cup, for the next two rounds. It's live on Eurosport.

Nancy at home to Feyenoord and Wisla at home to Basel tonight - two draws would be good.

Krakow Basle match is irrelevant now - neither can catch Rovers.

As for the dates I got that wrong http://www.uefa.com/uefa/Keytopics/kind=64...sId=425702.html, the first leg is on 14th/15th February and the second leg is on the 22nd.

Presumably if the first leg is on a Wednesday or Thursday then it must be a non Champions League week. If so Wednesday is more likely unless TV intervenes. Either way it looks like a romantic Valentines break for Anne and me...!

I've been back about 3hrs now and I'm still furious about leaving Amsterdam at 6:15pm and still missing the first 17 minutes of the game.

So you should be Glenn. You needed the conductor we had on our train. We left on the 7.10 from Amsterdam, which went the long way via Haarlem and wasn't scheduled to stop at the stadium. The conductor arranged a special stop for us (about 200) so we were in the ground just before the teams came out. Admittedly we were standing in a crush in the aisle on the lower tier for the first half, but we appear to have been very lucky.

If Feyenoord had scored from one of those late free kicks it would have been like Celtic v MU all over again. If you don't score when you are on top in any game at this level you usually end up suffering for it. Nonda's missed header in particular was abysmal.

That sums up our performances in Europe and at home. The actual performances all round have been about the same, but we've had the breaks in Europe that we haven't had at home. We could easily have ended up drawing in Krakow despite being the better team, the 3-0 over Basel greatly flattered us and although a draw last night was the right result we could have ended up losing.

Great to get through but I didn't think it was a great performance. Too many players below par particularly Bentley, Kish and MGP. Nonda couldn't have hit a barn door last night plus he lacks pace. McCarthy needs to understand the offside rule, too many good attacks fell down due to him being offside.

Really sorry not to have been there , looked fantastic support for Rovers, had tickets allocated but turned them down as I was scared there would be trouble from the Feyenoord nutters and I wasn't prepared to put myself, my wife and my children through that.

Hopefully there was no trouble but I would be interested to hear people's experiences and also how many coaches went from Ewood.

Hopefully we'll get a good draw in December so we can take another big following in Feb but hopefully to a club without any nutters !!

As far as I'm aware there was no trouble, certainly at the ground. Reading Gav's post above, there was some heavy handed policing in Rotterdam but I didn't see it. Being locked in for an hour was frustrating, especially as it meant we didn't get back to Amsterdam until 1.00 a.m. The arrangements inside the ground were shambolic and would have been very bad for any elderly, infirm or young fans

"I'll never attend a meeting point organised the club again. I like many had been all over Europe watching Rovers and I never been treated like that, even with England it's rare these days. To say the police are used to dealing with supporters they were clueless, ignorant and aggresive in some cases. It really spoilt the night to be honest."

We decided not to go to Rotterdam beforehand as it didn't sound easy to get to and from and didn't seem to offer anything more than we already had in Amsterdam. We caught the 19.10 from Amsterdam and just made it to the ground in time after the train conductor got permission to stop the train at the stadium station - otherwise we would have been very late. there were maybe 200 fans on this train. It sounded from hearing from other fans, including Gav, who left earlier than us, that we made the right choice.

"As for the ground itself it was like going back in time with a couple of lads ripping tickets off in a booth, it took ages to get in the ground then we were lucky as we had seats but I know Bob flemming paid 300 quid to come over for a day and never saw the first half due to cr@p stewarding. It was amaturish and just made the whole game an experience I won't forget in a hurry."

God knows why they could not have given us numbered seats - there were numbers on the seats. If that had happened everyone would have been in front of a seat even if we all ended up stood up all the time. We would not have then had a central aisle overflowing with fans for the first half at least, and many who couldn't even get this far. It seemed from looking at the other end that it was the same for the Feyenoord fans as well so presumably it's normal behaviour, which is outrageous given what could have happened.

It looks from the posts here that I might be the first one to post who was at the match - 7.20 flight back from Amsterdam this morning so precious little sleep.

On the match itself it seemed a draw was the right result - both sides could have scored with more adventure and composure. I would disagree with many on the individual performances - Emerton had an excellent game and for me was one of the Rovers stars with Ooijer and Tugay (of course). On the other hand Bentley was dreadful, even taking into account he had a strong left back to play against and for me Gamst was better - not good but better than Bentley. The first half penalty claim by Feyenoord, which I see the BBC is giving some credence to, would have been laughable if given.

On crowd matters I trust we will hear more as folk get back. As suspected it was an unreserved seating area and, as everyone stood throughout, it was very difficult for anyone coming in later to get near a seat. We arrived just before kick-off (thanks to Dutch railways who stopped the train specially at the stadium station for us) and spent the first half stood in the aisle with about 500 others. I believe there were many who didn't get properly in until half time. Imagine this happening in England. Also, despite what I thought was a UEFA rule, beer was for sale in the stadium and you could also take it into the ground. This created more mayhem as there were plenty who couldn't last 45 minutes and had to go and get more during the match. Why anyone, who could presumably have spent all day drinking and could carry on after the match needed to miss 20 minutes of a match they had travelled so far to see just to get a pint of 2% beer was beyond me, let alone that it took forcing their way past several hundred Rovers fans both ways to do it.

We were locked in after the match for an hour, which seemed a bit extreme given that we had a protective walkway all the way back to the station and coaches, although I presume they had to clear the station of Feyenoord fans first. This meant that we didn't get back to Amsterdam until 1.00 a.m.

why bother to go when you can watch it on TV? well, personally I know there's nothing like a live match, especially a live evening match when you're enclosed in Ewood and it's dark outside the glow of the floodlights. If we don't go there'll be no live football because you can't play in an empty stadium. I always tell kids who say to me that they'll watch it on TV that they just do not know what they are missing. It was awful on sunday though seeing just how empty Ewood looked on TV. I keep trying to persuade my pupils to come but would welcome support from the club in the form of leaflets and posters when there are special offers on. Quite often I tell kids about cheap tickets and they haven't been aware of them. They tend to walk around with their eyes closed most of the time.

Have you tried asking the club for some help? I'm sure if you called marketing they would be keen to work with you.

For those saying that Mido's was not a handball I think you were probably in the wrong place, rather like the referee who had no chance of seeing it. From my position in row 2 of the family stand at the JW side it was absolutely definitely a penalty - you could see clear daylight between Mido's body and the arm which hit the ball. Whilst the ref would not have seen it there was no excuse for the linesman who was right in front of it with a clear view. Of course Mido should never have been on the field by then, which brings me to my main point - the MOTD2 coverage.

I'll not bother with the views on the penalties - they have been well covered above. What summed the bias up for me were the comments on the two disallowed goals. Both were offside having seen the replays. On Nonda's the commentator saw the slow motion, declared him clearly offside and congratulated the linesman for the spot. On Mido's (again what was he doing still on the pitch?) they showed the slow motion and then just commented that Martin Jol was furious with the decision - the clear implication being that it wasn't offside, despite the clear evidence to the contrary. On the Ghally sending off the argument seemed to be that because he didn't bring his arm down like Ben Thatcher then the decision was wrong - he led with his arm in the air and then brought it down on Gray's head. Then someone had the gall to say that Gray made a meal of the challenge, going down clutching his head - what is he supposed to do, having been hit on the head?

Finally how a proper highlights package could have missed Mido's antics in the first half was completely beyond me. i didn't see the first incident with Henchoz which resulted in a long lecture but the second, where he appeared to put the palm of his hand in Henchoz's face, was a clear sending off. If you raise your hand with intent it's a straight red, no argument. Then after that he kicked a stewards chair up in the air in frustration (yellow card?) and at the end committed a horrible two footed lunge from behind on someone.

Sort of related. Does anyone think we should try and loan Jon Obi Mikel from Chelsea in January? Apparantly he's fallen out with Mourinho due to his poor attitude in training - and he hasn't been in the Chelsea squad since being sent off on his debut. I know we don't want players with poor attitude in training - but it'd give him a chance to show Mourinho what he could do - so he'd have to perform well for us. Mourinho claimed him to be one of the worlds best young players when he signed him - I think he could do a job for us in the short-term.

The report also said he had appalling timekeeping and surrounded himself with an entourage of "friends". Sounds perfect

Separately Bruce at Big Club is reported saying that he accepts that he might have to let Dunn go - only 18 months left on his contract and they might need to sell to get some value from him.

Presumably these are going to be a much harder sell this year as by Christmas we will have played all the north west clubs at home (except Liverpool) and Chelsea, Spurs and Newcastle. Last year it was the other way round with most of the bigger clubs still to come to Ewood. Also fans may well expect some good discount offers on some of the lesser games, making the value of a half season ticket less.

Still no news on extra ticket allocation? I know a few who haven't got tickets and the clubs silence doesn't help matters.

They'll still travel as you'll almost always get in, but having a large number of people without tickets isn't good from a policing point of view.

Whilst the club have made no announcement on the website about extra tickets, they have got some and are busy distributing them. I applied on Saturday and got a phone call yesterday (Thursday) saying I had 3. The extra tickets don't arrive until Sunday so we're picking them up at the Spurs match. Anyone who can't get to the ground to pick them up will probably struggle now. I've no idea whether they have allocated all the extra tickets, or indeed how many they got.

i only applied on Saturday and have just had a call that we have three of the extra allocation of tickets. Don't know how many more tickets we have been given and there is no change to the message on the official site.

I was under the impression that the remainder of unsold tickets were to go on open sale today, as indicated on the post by key76. I have just checked on the official site ticket info., and now says that general sale is from Monday.

It states that Season ticket holders and members can purchase from Thursday, so in theory just ring up or call in and they should sell you a ticket in line with those criteria.

However, the whole breakdown of the priority of ticket sales seems a little baffling. No way can they clear 2,000 applications over a period of 4 days.

I have rung up and all they can offer is that I put in applications and I may get tickets but they can't promise, because of the outstanding forms they have to process. As you have to have booked travel to put the forms in I run the risk of travel and no tickets, not a risk i am prepared to take.

You can't seriously be complaining about the allocation process? Rovers have been more than fair and posted the priorities about 3 weeks ago with the application form. It was clear from the off that previous euro travellers had priority over all, season ticket holders next and then non-season ticket holders.

No there weren't 2500 that went to Krakow and Salzburg there was 800 or so, but there are also 12000 season ticket holders a good chunk of whom will have put applications in 3 weeks ago!

Tickets are on open sale now, so it's up to you but don't start wingeing about it being unfair. Rovers have done this by the book exactly how people wanted it doing after recent fiascos.

I've no problem with the priority order, as I said on my message. The fact is, though, that plenty of non-season ticket holders who have also not been to either Salzburg or Krakow, already have the promise of tickets - just look up the thread a bit. Rovers took application forms in and it appears have given everyone who applied in advance tickets, no matter what their status. They have all either lied about their travel plans or have taken the risk that they will get tickets and booked travel - presumably many were happy to go anyway if they didn't get tickets just for a few days in Amsterdam. I wasn't prepared to risk losing money on travel and so waited until yesterday, when tickets were supposed to go on sale to season ticket holders, and now find it unlikely that I can get any. The process would have been fine and I would have no complaints if all the tickets go to those who have been to Europe this season and season ticket holders, but from reading messages on this thread that isn't the case.

You should get tickets. Two days ago, Lee reported 2000 applications - we were given 2500 tickets.

Ring the ticket office soon and you should be OK.

Not sure you will. I'm in a similar situation - not booked yet and not been to either Salzburg or Krakow, but we are season ticket holders. I rang up this morning as I didn't want to book travel and hotel without a promise of tickets and they said that I could put the forms in but they could not guarantee I would get tickets, as they had a lot of applications to process. I can't afford to spend £350 for two people without being sure of getting tickets so it looks at the moment like we're not going.

It seems a bit frustrating that as season ticket holders we won't go and yet plenty of non-season ticket holders already have tickets, presumably because they were willing to gamble that they would get tickets and booked travel and completed forms early. I don't have any problem with those who went to Salzburg or Krakow having priority but there weren't 2,500 of them.

JHC!!!! I wouldn't have thought anyone would have had the bare faced cheek to state that after season ticket holders had the Salzburg game for nowt.

It really does begger belief

I was pointing out that it would be a factor for some people on a cold night with the match on the TV, not condoning it. I was there, as I will be for all home UEFA matches (and hopefully some away ones as well).

Three points to bear in mind on the attendance: -

1. Remember that, although it only cost £7.50 for a season ticket holder last night, that was £7.50 more than it cost for the Salzburg game.

2. If you take out the away support for both matches there were probably more home fans there last night than came to watch the champions Chelsea last week.

3. The attendance was about 50% more than Middlesborough had for their home group games last year.

Could I have some directions to Ewood please, clearly I was at a different game from the majority. From start to finish the match was thoroughly entertaining and Rovers have doen very well to comprehensively beat a good, well organised side who few seem to be giving any credit. It was a comprehensive victory, 3-0 no one can argue with that.

I had no expectations of Basel before the game and was surpised by how open the whole gane turned out to be. Basel clearly hoped to suck us in and catch us on the counter-attack but theirs was not a negative way of achieving this which lead to a goalless but very entertaining first-half. Yes we could have been 3-0 down if Brad hadn't been in great form - but that's why he is in the team. If the keeper is making great saves why complain? I don't think you'd see a first-half like this in the PL as most away sides are so negative and scared of losing.

This needs a sentence on it's own. Mcky Gray is nowhere near as bad as people are saying. I never worry when he's in the team. He may not be the best but he'll give you all he's got every time.

Apologies to the rest who clearly didn't enjoy the first half. If we were so bad how come the crowd didn't resort to it's usal half-time, half-hearted booing? I had an excellent night, thoroughly entertained from start to finish, three goals including a Tugay classic that will live in the mind for many years. Bring on the Nancy boys, if you didn't get to Ewood last night get a ticket now for the next one.

Paul,

Clearly you and I were at the same match anyway - see my comments on page 12. The only area I would disagree would be in Gray's performance. I don't doubt that he gives all he's got - at this level though it's just not good enough.

I thought it was a cracking game of football. My view of the first half was that Basel came at us strongly and it was at least as much their good play as our poor play. Having said that we did play some good passing football and showed some patience, Unlike many of the crowd who seemed just to want us to hoof it into the 8 defenders in the box.

It was a pleaseure to see a team come with the rather old fashioned notion of trying to beat us by playing good football - quite refreshing after the diving, kicking, time wasting, arguing and downright unpleasantness we have had in the last two home games. The end score flattered us but they seemed to go to pieces after the first goal.

Excellent games for Ooijer, Zurab, Friedel, Pedersen and of course Tugay. Savage was never in the game whilst he was on, Neil never really got going and Gray's performance should surely have convinced even the most myopic fan that he needs to go. Unlike others I also thought Bentley did not have his best match tonight.

I know that it has been said that this game is on eurosport, but it isn't on their online tv listings.

Eddie,

I think you'll find it's on British Eurosport, but not on continental european, so if you're in Paris you could be unlucky.

Many of the comments on this thread seem to be trying to work out how those that wish to stand and those that don't can co-exist in the same stand. It's fairly obvious to me that they can't, but surely most clubs can segregate an area of the ground for standing use? Then all those who want to stand and sing can be together with their mates (and therefore probably make more noise and improve the general atmosphere for everyone, as long as they refrain from the two quid an hour chants or some of the racist stuff we've heard in recent weeks). Everyone else who wants to sit down for the majority of the match then won't have their view obscured at crucial times.

Because Benni was racially abused. It's nothing to do with him that a section of our fans sing that rubbish. The only argument that could be put forward is that the section of our fans doing it ought to be punished too- which I would agree with. It's like saying we shouldn't punish a murderer, because there are other murderers who don't get punished.

Glad to hear the guy has a 5 match ban, I doubt very much that Benni was making it up.

Bennie had the support of the referee, which presumably was the clincher, as the player was vigorously denying it. As you say perhaps someone can move on to the racists in our midst.

Gray probably and Neill definitely. Robben switched from left to right because he knew he had the beating of him. The lad tries hard but he is just not good enough for the Premiership. Maybe you watched a different game from me.

Clearly I must have, although other comments above on Jay's performance are probably nearer my view than yours. I wouldn't have him in my first choice team but I'd be fairly relaxed about him being on the bench if needed. He would certainly be ahead of Gray in my opinion, but then I at 53 might be ahead of him as well...