No of course they won't! That's just the point......this is a big one-off match that people who cannot attend regularly for whatever reason want to see but are being denied the opportunity just to satisfy Celtic. I'm probably typical of some people in that I can only get to Ewood about 4 or 5 times a year but I am willing to rearrange all my work and domestic schedules (and have a row with missus!) for what will probably be a once-in-a-lifetime match. Your argument is the same old where-were-you-lot-when-I was-watching-Rovers-play-away-to-Grimsby-in-the-1970s syndrone?

The fact is Celtic stuck to the rules and gave us the minimum 5 per cent that they were required to do. They looked after their own fans first and quite rightly so. The real scandal is Rovers handing over all 8,000 tickets to the Darwen End because it sends exactly the wrong message to the Celtic hordes: ie, get down to Blackburn because if 8,000 can get in legitimately another 4,000 should be able to by one means or another. I'll take bets with anyone that Celtic fans will be dotted all round the JW, the Riverside and even the Blackburn End. As I said before, the club has taken the easy way out here. Selling is 8,000 tickets is far easier than trying to drum up local support....not that it was needed for this match anyway. Half the b......town wants to go to this one. Rovers should have done to Celtic what they did to us....offer them 5 per cent, ie 1,500 tickets, and then see how tickets sales go. Any left over (in the Darwen End) could have been handed over to Celtic nearer the day of the match. Or is that too simple.....?

Basically, the club has taken the easy way out. Flogging 8,000 tickets to Celtic fans is a no-brainer, getting 28,000 Rovers fans in the ground requires hard work and persistence. The disappointing thing is that 1. Rovers will never ever increase the fans base long-term by making expedient short-term decisions such as this. I'm sure there are thousands of fans (me and three of my friends for a start) who would love to go to this match but will now be unable to. 2. 8,000 tickets is not going to satisfy the Scottish hordes. They are a desperate lot who will find any way to get a ticket into Ewood and I think we will have a Man City situation on our hands even if we had given them 20,000 tickets. All in all, the wrong decision by the club, and yet again, it has taken them twice as long as the opposition (as at Cardiff) to let supporters know what is happening.