LOL. What was he doing in the toilet with Keith Lard?

I really don't understand why so many people on here spend all their time slagging off the support of the Club they profess to support!. We should be intensely PROUD of our current level of support not ashamed of it. We do not live in a City of 1m or even 250k inhabitants. FACT: Celtic will sell out or near as dammit despite tickets not going on open sale. FACT: A massive Club like Celtic couldn't sell out their tickets without putting them on open sale. FACT: Any big City Club would have to have gates of c£250,000 to match the %age take up of the population achieved by Rovers FACT: Attendances have held steady despite a 20% hike in prices. Of course enthusiasm may have seemed greater in 1993. (although attendances are actually far better now) Top flight football was a novelty then now it is the norm. And so it should be with the infrastructure provided by Uncle Jack. God knows what people on here would say if we were getting the 6,000 attendances of the 70's, early 80's. Now THAT'S poor. Would all those moaning now have been too ashamed to support our little Club in those days? The attendances will increase gradually season upon season in the Premiership. They need tweaking rather than drastic surgery. There's no point moaning on here about it. Everyone on here either goes already or is precluded by geographical limitations. Anyone still unhappy, instead of moaning, get a friend down to Ewood as the slogan goes!.

Sorry for being misleading oz, we haven't sold out yet but I'm sure we will. What I meant was it is no mean achievement to sell out any fixture where tickets don't actually go on open sale. In line with Baz's comments above I'm not actually certain a lot of supporters are aware they can purchase tickets for big games by virtue of being on the database. IF YOU'RE ON YOU CAN APPLY! AND IF YOU'RE NOT ON AND WANT TO GO TO SEE US BEAT LIVERPOOL/MANURE IN FUTURE GET YOURSELF ON BY GOING DOWN TO SEE FULHAM/SOUTHAMPTON /CHARLTON AT HOME!

The only amazing thing in my eyes is that we can actually sell out a game on TV at Category A prices without putting tickets on open sale. (Not that that is feasible for this particular game.) Celtic of course had to do that a few days before the game to ensure a full house.

Moderation Mode Off PABBY, I'd say you owe around 16000 Season Ticket holders an apology for that insult. Words fail me....we are amongst the clubs most loyal supporters and those LEAST likely to act in this way. Are you aware any ST holder selling on a Celtic ticket faces losing their ST? On 1864's point I bought 3 extras the first day they went on open sale simply by explaining I was an ST holder and I have a histiry of buying extra tickets. Paul ... I'd say he owes about 15,500 of them an apology ... season ticket holders and idiots are not mutually exclusive though Thank you Tris, i take it that comment was directed at me. Perhaps you can then give a sensible explanation as to why a pay per match person who might regularly buy several tickets in their own name for unspecified friends should be able to purchase extra tickets, whereas the lifeblood of the Club, season ticket holders can not?

Write to or contact Secretary Tom Finn directly at the Club explaining the problem and giving details of the intended recipients. It's no wonder we struggle to sell out with such ridiculously restrictive regulations. Why should people who purchase tickets on a match by match basis be allowed to purchase extra tickets when the main core of our support, 16,000 ST holders, can't?

Well if we play like that in the second leg................. We'll have 70% possession again but lose the tie 2-0. Some great build up play from Rovers but much too tippy tappy in the final third. Trying to pass the ball into the net as we're prone to do on occasion. We have to be much more ruthless at Ewood and we could easily find ourselves having to score 3 to win. I was adamant before last night's game we'd at least score a vital away goal. Having said that, on last night's evidence you would fancy us to go through even though it was a poor result.

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!

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 fully expected us to beat Newcastle comfortably but the Arsenal result was of course a complete bonus on the balance of play. Neither of those games will have too much bearing on the Celtic tie. If we rise to rather than be intimidated by, the occasion I expect us to prove superior in every area of the pitch. A 2-1 victory both legs.

The main imponderable will be how we handle the atmosphere in the first leg. In pure footballing terms we should win both legs IMO.

Season ticket holders should ALWAYS have priority over non ST holders. Otherwise there's hardly any point in purchasing one.

The problem with having too many people on the phone is that hardly anyone who had been queueing for hours would have been able to get a ticket. Many in the queue were of the view the Club shouldn't be accepting telephone applications at all.

Rovers held all the aces in the fact we were in a position to offer such a massive allocation for the second leg! How would tickets have ended up in Celtic hands if sales were restricted to people on the database? We all know there will be a certain amount of infiltration anyway through tickets being sold on, though I doubt this will be anything like the level for the City game as it's a massive game for Rovers fans.

Because Celtic were reliant on our co-operation in giving them more than the minimum 5% for the second leg.

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.

We know about Jordan so far, anyone else? After much progress in recent years I find it very dispiriting how far out of touch the Club have been with the mood of the fans in relation to this tie. Never better typified by the assertion that the 2800 allocation requested would prove to be sufficient given the tie was on TV etc.

Behind me in the queue was an employee of the Club who works at the ground on matchdays in Jack Walker lower. Not sure if he's a steward or matchday sales. He told me and several others in the queue that Rovers were offered either 7,200 or 3,200 tickets (including 400 for players and directors). It was either one or the other due to segregation, no inbetween. He said we refused the 7,200 because we didn't want to take the risk of not selling them. Saw John Newsome outside the ground who again reiterated the official line that we were only ever offered 5%.

Out of interest, has anyone been able to get through on the phone.

Got mine, I got down about 4.35 AM and was about 55th in the queue. The stewards said there were 310 there by 6.30 and I would say there would have been 8-900 there by 9AM. Bearing in mind most people were getting 2,3,or 4 tickets for others I would say the merde will hit the fan a little later when many of the people there can't get a ticket.

Hi Tris, just chewing the fat until I go to queue for celtic tickets at 4 am. We've covered point 1) umpteen times before but if you took it to it's logical conclusion we'd still have the same 6 or 7,000 fans who watched us in the 70's. It's human nature, a lot of people will naturally want to see the bigger games. I see no reason to exclude them for that. We have 16,000 season ticket holders and they're hardly "part timers" are they? The "intelligence" is simply the comment emanating from the Scottish press and numerous Celtic Fans who posted on the official message board. Not exactly gospel but the Rovers fans I overheard going into the ground believed that was the case and if that is the perceived wisdom generally the Club will inevitably receive flak. Personally I feel it is stretching the bounds of credulity to maintain we couldn't negotiate twice our minimum allocation for Parkhead in exchange for giving them five times the minimum allocation for Ewood. If we don't sell out the away leg and/or the vast majority are happy I'll be the first hold my hands up and say the Club got it right.

Because in comparative terms no-one is interested in watching us play PSG whereas the world and his dog wants to watch us play Celtic. It's like drawing a comparison between playing Wimbledon and ManUre. Only this game has far more appeal because whilst we should enjoy several European campaigns with the current squad we may never draw Celtic again in Europe whereas we play ManUre twice a season. You've heard of the compulsive gambler who would bet on the proverbial two flies crawling up the wall. For many on this board watching Rovers play anywhere is just as addictive but for the greater majority it just isn't like that. Most of the intelligence emanating from Glasgow is to the effect that we could have had 6,000 tickets but that Rovers didn't take it up because they didn't want to pay for any unsold allocation. I can only repeat what I heard which was that the people I overheard going into the ground were of the firm view that the latter was the case which was why presumably they were miffed off. Even if we were offered only the minimum allocation the way the Club have sorted allocation criteria means many regular away travellers will miss out in favour of season ticket holders who haven't been away for years who just fancy this one. Which is why I think the Club will get a lot of flak over the away leg. The home leg arrangements I take no major issue with but still think it would have been better to at least TRY to sell more of the ground out to Blackburn folk.

The comment I heard going into the ground from a couple of people yesterday was that Rovers have **** on the fans with the allocation for the away leg. I still think this will be a PR disaster for the Club and would be surprised if there are any tickets left by lunchtime tomorrow. Waggy, we sold out OT quite quickly for last season's game as I recall.

Everyone wants to con everyone else into thinking they're going at five to nine.

That at least is a very reasonable 10% of capacity which I'm sure the Chelsea Board fought very hard for!! P.S. See you at Highbury.