there are still tickets left today,i am at a loss over this fact.where as a club do we go from here?

Don't forget that the ticket office are refusing to sell tickets to rovers fans. What do you expect?

Celtic didn't refuse their fans tickets, did they?

Only Rovers "fans" who never went last season or this, even to Cardiff.  Shame.

So new fans or former fans who may have fallen off at some point are not to be encouraged?  

ah the database,the problem is 90% of 1st time buyers for the celtic game would be potential touts.i have said it before and will say it again,it is wrong that there will be empty seats at ewood tomorrow and thousands of celtic fans outside!!

How many empty seats are we talking? Not so many I wouldn't have thought.

Anyone who wants to go who isn't on the database.

Price will also have had some effect. Two friends of mine who are S/T ticket holders in JW upper and who were looking at £32 each for their tickets didn't even consider purchasing a ticket given they could watch it for free at home /in the Pub.

Strangely in my view they did however go to Walsall because it was a tenner. If I'd absolutely had to pick and choose I would have done it the other way round.

there are still tickets left today,i am at a loss over this fact.where as a club do we go from here?

Onwards and upwards after beating celtic to morrow night.

Hi Tris good to hear you enjoyed the day!.  

Agree re: referee, Gillespie and Dunn but have to totally disagree with your assessment of Cole. Thought he worked his knackers off today (ditto Villa) and was our most effective player. (Not that that was saying much!)

Nothing at all has gone for him in front of goal this season, and this goal the proverbial rebound off his arse on the line could well kickstart his season.

There's no point moaning on here about it. Everyone on here either goes already or is precluded by geographical limitations.

Well lets just shut down the messageboard then.

Calm down.

The point is that hardly any-one who the complaint is made against will be likely to read this board.

talking tactics

I hope the identity of the dog was witheld to save it further embarrasment.

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!

Im, amazed and saddened that we still have tickets left for the CELTIC GAME TO ARGUE OVER.

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.

....S.T.H.s are probably the ones most likely to purchase tickets for Celtic fans, so by not selling to them it's one less way for Celtic fans to infiltrate the home areas of the ground....

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?

I ahve just been to Ewood today to pick up my tickets for tonites game as they were not posted.

Whilst enquiring about tickets I asked if I could purchase another ticket for the Celtic game being a season ticket holder. The lady agreed to sell me another ticket and set about her computer.

She then told me that as I had purchased over 30 away tickets over the past two season and purchased every cup game both home and away in the same period IWAS NOT ENTITLED TO BUY ANOTHER TICKET !!

I was dumbfounded when she told me that in order to get another ticket I had to purchase home league tickets !! My explanation to her that as a season ticket holder I didnt buy home league games tickets was simply not good enough !!

Talk about shooting one self in the foot !

Surely I must be able to get another ticket for the home leg on my ticket purchasing for away games/cup games however this is not even being considered byt he club.

Anyone else any views on this ??

Blackburnender

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!  

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)

After two results where reality was better than we could have dreamt of (shades of 94/5?), here is a game which we can and should win.

Just a matter of the Rovers wanting it as much as the Bhoys.

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.

Can anybody explain to me in simple terms why Celtic would feel the need to give us anymore than the minimum 5%allocation.

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

Celtic fans on the official club mb say that the Scottish papers had quoted Rovers being offered an allocation of between 6,000-2,800.

Quote taken from Celtic fan on mb........

''Admin the fact is Blackburn could have had 6000 seats for Celtic had they had faith in thier own fans, but too worried about footing the bill for unsold tickets they took the easy option and plumped for 2800.

The reason there was no offer between 2800 and 6000 is because away fans have to be in policable sections not just pockets, seems to me Blackburn could have sold at the very least 6000 pity they have such short-sighted suits in the boardroom

ENOUGH SAID!!??

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%.