Bought an album by a newish band called The Thrills!! The album is called So Much For The City and I'm really impressed by it!! They look like the next band to make it big.

Oh isn't music such a brilliant thing! My life would be rather incomplete without it!!

Got the very same album as you and must admit to being rather impressed. The reviews said a cross between Bob Dylan and Brain Jones.

Thought they were a Californian surf group but apparently hail from Dublin.

'Big sur' is a quality summer track as are 'Santa Cruz' and '1 horse town'

Looks as though they're trying to keep everyone in one place and keep an eye on them. If coaches are travelling down full of supporters with no tickets, and all coaches are to be parked at the Darwen End, this means all the ticketless fans will have to make their way to the ground for the end of the match. Does this mean all the pubs round Ewood that are open will be full of Celtic fans watching the game? I really do not understand people travelling without tickets. All the touting will have been done already in Glasgow.

With you being a Blackburn Rovers supporter I’m sure that has something to do with you not understanding why people travel without tickets. It’s not something we ever have a problem with, I only wish we did.

7500 Celtic fans are coming to Blackburn and most will arrive by 11am if reports are to be believed. Ticketless fans with a PASSION for football and the club will just come and enjoy a day on the ale with fellow supporters, sing a few songs and have a real party despite not having a ticket. If the roles were reversed I’d certainly travel in the opposite direction to just enjoy seeing my supporters take over a town or city for the day even if I had no ticket.

Wouldn't you?

   i wonder how many people feel a bit worried about the prospect of  -hundreds of celtic fans in the town before the match ? it is anybodys guess how many and for how long [ie those with tickets] will be in the town centre. they will know that theres more chance of a drink away from ewood during the day . i went to the game at scum several years ago with celtic-[ i went with my step dad who was born up there in glasgow] and i hope to hell i never see scenes like that night - the violence and missile throwing from the celtic fans had to be seen to believed.the scum fans just did not exist after the first celtic[infantry ]charge then it was just missile throwing at the police or anybody in range. after the game the celtic fans were just on the rampage down towards the town centre, i  even saw them drag a mounted policeman dragged off his horse.the plan was to restrict their drinking  but they came into blackburn before the game  buying large amounts of drink in the offys . so if in town on thurs beware.  

What a heap of absolute rubbish.  I wont even grace that statement with anymore than that.

That game was played in 1977, 25yrs ago!

Times have changed everywhere but in burnley  :'>

absolutely

I know its been mentioned on one of the other Forums - but should we try and "organise" a meet up of those from the board going - it would be interesting and fun to meet people who use this board and also means that Tris wont scare the hell out of me like he did at Birmingham  

I think Ste has a few ideas on arranging a meet. I'd go for a pub on the outskirts of town to avoid it being an away supporter only pub.

I'm available from 11am  

Having been in the main Celtic pub in Glasgow and generally mixed with around 55k+ of them, on their own patch, i'll certainly be drinking in town on Thursday afternoon as we had so much good banter with them previously.

Go out and enjoy the day because you never know when a game like this will come around again.

We never went yesterday but have been to Southampton on a number of occasions previously and always found the support in good voice and numbers. Without doubt the terrible performance from the opening whistle hardly helped.

Can't agree about southern games being poor for atmosphere. The season we went down away to Charlton and QPR were 2 of the best games I can remember in recent times for singing both in the pubs and in the grounds.

For anyone who went to Parkhead it must have been astonishing to hear the contrasts from one game to the next. If the level support at Celtic was in evidence more often, you could put 50% on the away followings because it was a fantastic experience, and one more people would want to share.

As for being told to shut up Jordan, I can understand why someone would want you to shut up  :'> No really their are far too many people in the 'shut up sit down brigade' following the club these days.

PRAWN SANDWICH ANYONE

So a question then?

Is it better to play well and lose (a la Boro/Celtic away) or play rubbish and get a point or three?

For me there's no doubt. But that could mean we get relegated.

Poor performances as well as results can become a habit. If a team continues to play poorly and win, eventually they will get found out.

I'd rather have the team playing well and losing the odd game because bad luck doesn't last a season in my opinion.

Let's not say everyone had a bad game because Brad was again outstanding and is second only to the Chelsea keeper in my opinion.

Critisizm for Dunny? Whatever next  :'>

Let's hope we've got that very poor performance out of our system for this season. Thing is with Rovers we usually lose those kind of games.

How many travelling fans? we usually take a good following to Southampton for some strange reason?

Onwards and upwards.

See you Thurs Tris when hopefully you'll have calmed down  

those of you who are from blackburn are being too hard on youselves.

for the size of the town we get great support.

celtic would have to get crowds of over 300,000 to better us.

the real question here is the big one.

how does a small town club with several other local teams get enough of a crowd to sustain premiership football?

answers on a postcard to ewood park.

only good thing is that even if celtic did get 300,000 crowds they would still not be in our league  :'>    

Thing is Tash, 8yrs ago we sold out 23k+ with days to spare!

Maybe football isn't as fashionable as it was back then.

Surely everyone didn't come out to see Mary Poppins.... :'>

With only 3 working days to go I find it rather disheartening to find out we've not sold out in home areas, AGAIN.

Why on earth should we have the regular debate on giving away sides the whole Darwen end when year upon year we can't sell out in home areas when we do so?

What the hell do the Blackburn public need to get the interest going?

Again it's debateable whether or not the Blackburn public deserve a Premiership football club fighting on all fronts  

The Parkhead area is certainly better than it used to be - I last visited about 10 years ago and it seemed many old tenements had been pulled down to make way for newer housing. The same goes for the Gorbals. We walked the 2 miles back to the Days Inn through this area and whilst not the best in the world, it is no worse than Manchester or Liverpool.

We had a great time in the city before and after the match. The atmosphere in the Horseshoe Bar was good as it was in one or two other pubs we went in. Enjoyed some good banter with Celtic fans and there was never a hint of trouble anywhere.

Anyone find a good curry house? We were mainly in the area around the Central Station and later on walked for ages trying to find somewhere to eat. At around 1am we finally settled for the Chinese which seemed to be the only place open. It was packed with Rovers fans.

We had a great time despite the result.

Was that Chinese upstairs?

Myself, debs, May1995 and HOTSPOT were in there until 2.15am. I was the one looking rather hung over with a beige jumper on.

Not bad food if i remember.

'North West Tonight' showed a few rovers fans singing in a pub.

Debs, beige jumper and black rimmed specs ??        :'>

If so, who were you with ?!

Debs black rimmed glasses

Gav with beige jumper

John with purple jumper (Bought from Hawkshead)

Jordan with Rovers top on

Plus many more from the site having a good old @#/? up.

I'm not suggesting for a second tickets for the second leg of this tie go on open sale, just that we need to relax ticketing policy for League games.

If Celtic can't sell this game out without putting tickets on open sale we are not going to sell our games out with a more restrictive policy.

As far as being shafted by Celtic is concerned, several fans including Julie (aka Classy Bird on here, juetheblue2 on the official m/b) have said John Williams himself was walking up and down the queues himself explaining we had turned down the 7,200 allocation.

That's gone now, the vital thing is filling Ewood for the future.

Only 24 hours from Glasgow! COME ON YOU BLUES!  

Fellow posters on here said it was a steward who was telling people in the queue that John Williams had turned down 7200 allocation. John Williams didn't even deal with the tickets for this game we are lead to believe.

Understand your points Revidge and I like everyone else wants to see new support blooded on Blackburn Rovers. It's hard to get an adequate solution to the infiltration problem when some supporters only try to attend the big games.

Earlier today the Celtic ticket hotline had the following message:

To ENSURE this match is a sellout tickets are now on general sale.

I suspect this thread may warm up again if there are 2-3000 empty seats at Parkhead tomorrow night :'>

Marvellous, Rovers pass up a worthwhile allocation just so Celtic can put the tickets on open sale.

(And yes, the Club) have usually got it right in recent times)

On a more general theme the fact a "major" Club like Celtic has to put tickets on open sale just to try and ensure a sell out speaks volumes.

We're not selling out at Ewood yet it's easier for the occasional fan to get into Fort Knox than it is to get into a category A game.  

We have to start taking a slightly more relaxed view towards ticket sales if we're going to fill Ewood. We can't keep going on about Man City for ever.

And, whilst I'm not entirely in favour of the idea, I can't understand how it can be acceptable for a club like Celtic to put tickets on open sale but not apparently Blackburn Rovers.

(Talking in general not for the second leg)

I'm sure many people share your frustration Revidge and after my terrible miscalculation on ticket sales for Parkhead may I now join you in thinking we have somehow been shafted.

But we've been shafted by Celtic and not Blackburn Rovers

As for the home game surely you understand Celtic are one of the best supported clubs in the world and infiltration would be on a massive scale if tickets went on open sale for the game at Ewood.

The club are certainly not hiding behind the City fiasco alone. Man Utd, Liverpool and Bolton have all had a good numbers of supporters in our home areas and the club and police want to ensure this doesn't happen in the future. Far to many games in the past have been spoilt for home supporters because groups of away supporters are situated in their areas.

Sad but true.

Still, I had a dream last night that we won 1-3 at Glasgow.

I had a dream last night I missed me train and lost me match tickets

I'd be going to the station now if i was you......

This loyalty, season tickets etc. discussion is going nowhere.

Fact is, the club vastly underestimated demand for this game and as a result, on the day it was pot luck as to whether you were going to get a ticket or not.

If anyone has by-passed the rules then they can be criticised but let's not make those who got their ticket through normal channels and are going to the match feel guilty by conducting a witch hunt.

As always the definition of loyalty can be quite subjective so it is up to the club to make this call.

Spot on, Uddersfelt.  Some of our most loyal fans are arguably the exiles who are unable to get to any games but make all sorts of sacrifices to make sure they see and hear as much as they possibly can.  

Too many people for my liking seem obsessed with the vain attempt to identify themselves as better/more worthy fans than their neighbour.

Spot on chaps.

The club are always going to be on a hiding to nothing in such circumstances. Lean towards one group and annoy another, they can't win.

It's clear by recent trends in our away support that such difficulties will not arise to often in the future, as Tris has mentioned, but certainly the regular away match fan needs to have some sort of distinction if the need arises.

I can't believe some people on this thread who seem to think the club are lying about the allocation offered. The club have stated they were only ever offered 2800 and that was final, why would they lie? It's complete rubbish that they shunned 6000+ because they'd have to foot the bill. The club have come on leaps and bounds in recent times, regarding giving the fans a fare deal, and we have no reason to believe this time was different. Ask Man Utd for 6000 tickets when we visit old trafford this season and see what they say......

I'm lucky enough to have got a ticket for this game but I sense the feeling of some posters is the way I felt in the Championship winning season. The Liverpool game came along and although I’d been away a number of times that season I wasn't able to get a ticket. I felt that years of watching rubbish in the old days was good enough for me to have a ticket but it wasn't and eventually I got over that. The one annoying thing for me is the amount of people who were actually there that day that have never been away again and some hardly ever go to home games these days of the ones i know.

Did I say I’d got over it........

The biggest problem we'll have when we play Celtic is the pace of the game. Scottish football is renowned for being much quicker than the English game and in the two games against CSKA we struggled when they started to zip the ball around at pace.

On another note I get the feeling that Celtic think they'll walk this round for some reason. Whether it be the media or fans rhetoric it's the feeling I’m getting. Comparisons with Spurs before the cup final,

'little blackburn' and 'well they've been to a cup final bless em'

Come on Rovers let's continue the low profile and hope it ends in triumph.

The fact is, when all the fuss has died down, there is hardly ever a time when any points system will be needed.

FA cup games - you get 20% of the stadium anyway.  Hardly any team we could draw would present a problem for Rovers fans in the FA Cup except away to a local non-league or 3rd Division side - and most would probably switch the tie to Ewood for the money.

With the run to Cardiff last season, was there ever a time when someone who wanted a ticket didn't get one ?  I know people started panicking about Cardiff but 30,000 went - and as I've already mentioned a fair few haven't been seen since.

Have we sold out an away league game up until Arsenal this season ?  No, and that went onto open sale.  We didn't even sell out at Citeh.

And there is no other draw in the UEFA which could do this.

Maybe United away will bring em all out and good luck to them (personally it's probably the away game I care about the least) - and for that one game you offer it to season ticket holders with 3 away stubs, then non ST's with 3 away stubs and STs with 2.

I can't think of a single other fixture where a points system or equivalent is needed.

Beat me to it Tris.  :'>

I think i owe a few people a pint at Arsenal.

Bloody hell Jordan don't make promises you can't keep    

Glad you got sorted.

Well Part 1 went to plan!

2800! THE CLOWNS!

Watch out for part 2!

As I said before the people that run the club know nothing about football and the people of East Lancs. How could we expect them to ..... after all theyre just supposed to be top business men!

Im far from bitter cos Ive fortunately got a ticket.  How much better would it have been with 6-7k though?  And how much damage will be done if part 2 ends similarly?  I tell you, rovers have mad another big mistake giving celtic the whole DE.

Gav - home fans average this season is much better than 20k! There werent 4000 empty seats on Saturady.  In addition to the official attendance you need to add another 1500-2000 for free under-8 season tickets which the club do not (I believe) include on the attendance figures.

I could sell 50 tickets for each leg on my own ..... and many of mates have got tickets for away leg, most will have for home.  Someone earlier said they should get out and speak to the fans - EXACTLY! It aint hard, just requires a bit of effort!

I think i've gone on record earlier in the post as saying we average between 20-22k and i don't see that as being to far out.

Biggest home game last season, as is every season, Man Utd at home and it never sold out in home areas! infact i don't think we sold out one game last season.

Whilst i was wrong about the away leg i really don't see the home leg being a problem in terms of interest from Rovers supporters.

I really don't see this game being bigger than a top Premiership match. This season so far we have averaged 20-22k home supporters which is enough for the cup game against Celtic.

Really don't see what the problem is.

What do you reckon GAVIN,did this little post from your goodself on Oct 15th influence,Tom Finn,Williams,into accepting only 2800 tickets from Celtic,as oppose to the other offer of 7500.Nice one GAVIN.

BIG MOUTH STRIKES AGAIN.

Maybe i'll have a word with John Williams and Tom Finn about the standing up in the Blackburn end since i have such influence over club matters

:'>

What’s your problem Blue Flush?  I’ll agree that Rovers should have pushed for more tickets and the allocation of those tickets should have been fairer, but you can’t go blaming fellow board members for that.

Of course I'm not blaming GAVIN,the blame is entireley on the club for being far to cautious (tickets for Celtic),and far too soft(tickets for Celtic fans,at Ewood).Negative GAVIN,did'nt even bother to queue for a ticket this morning,as he was swanning around in hic car.BUT,it seems he's landed himself with a ticket,well done GAVIN.The worrying thing is theres only a 2800 to one chance of him sitting next to me.God imagine that.

Don't have a go at me @#/?.

The reason i never queued is because i read the information and followed the guidelines set out.

May i suggest you do the same in future to save you from further REDFLUSH

:'>

Let me say at this point i was totally wrong about the number of tickets i beleived we'd sell. It's clear from the way tickets have sold we could indeed have taken double the 3000 allocated but have been hit by poor away followings in recent times.

Feel sorry for the ones who can't attend but most of all Jordan  

Came past the ground earlier and their didn't seem to be much of a queue at all. I know people queue under the stand but the windows seemed empty.

Over reaction maybe?

Revidge,

What you must understand is that Celtic have refused point blank to give us anymore tickets and that is as simple as it gets. I agree we could have told them to increase the allocation or hold back tickets at Ewood but I’m sure that was never an option in the grand scheme of things.

The club have taken a view based on away support in recent times and asked for the 3000.

When was the last time we took 3000 away? all things being equal?