j b lyons

if you cannot get a direct flight into Ljubljana with Easyjet or Wizzair you could consider Ryanair flying into Trieste in Italy (right on the border with Slovenia. Buses and trains run from Trieste to Ljubljana on a fairly regular basis and is less than 2 hrs journey time. Other option is fly to Zagreb and get train to Ljubljana but flight times and trains tend to be a bit askew if you you try and do both for the same day - I would suggest Trieste route

I have looked and cannot find any reference to alcohol not being sold on 1st September - where did you get that 'little gem' from?

Home team gets to keep their 1st choice kit but colour of kit is the least of out problems I think

Booked Easyjet direct to Ljubljana from Gatwick and booked an apartment for three nights in city centre. Great place to visit and very friendly locals, 'dead rubber' or not - this is one away game not to miss

More than a 75% chance game will be in Kaunas and despite thoughts on the standard of the stadium it is still far better than the one in Vilnius and will have a much larger capacity. As for Kaunas itself, yes it is not as nice a town as Vilnius but the 'old town' part of Kaunas has some fantastic bars and restaurants too. This will be my third trip there and I like the place, gambled for this occasion by flying in direct from Luton and have an apartment booked Thursday to Sunday in old town. Still time for a wee train journey on the Saturday to Vilnius and back that night so all good as far as I am concerned

Me and son in law booked from Gatwick to Ljubljana Friday to Monday with Easyjet @ £143 each and a beautiful town centre apartment in Ljubljana for 3 nights @ £240, even got a King Size and Queen sized bed! (and naw, I'm not sharing with any of you . . . . unless there are any lingerie models out there needing somewhere )

Booked flights into Kaunas with Wizz Air from Luton - Thursday to Sunday. Booked an apartment for 3 nights from the Thursday in Kaunas but also booked 2 nights in Vilnius for the Thursday and Friday to cover both potential venues and can cancel as appropriate.

I started this topic because I was really annoyed at the kick off time for a Sunday as travelling up from Kent for games is always a 'pain' without added aggravation of a late Sunday night kick off. Following the last few games that problem has now gone as I will not now be making the journey due to a total lack of enthusiasm and have cancelled my time off from work for the Monday which would have been my travelling time home. Due to the combination of results / performances & Kick off time I can see this being the smallest Hampden crowd since the 70's. I will still be attending the England game in June but only because I am already going to be up in Scotland for a holiday but it is not a game I can look forward to at the moment although I am sure my enthusiasm will eventually return. I am still going to Lithuania and Slovenia but only because I have friends there and had already booked. I have not felt this despondent about a Scotland team since I first started going back in 1967 and can't see any real light at the end of the tunnel . . . especially as we don't seem to have any 'up and coming' central defenders anywhere in sight which is the heart of our problem

Barbarians v South Africa at Wembley on Friday 5th November. I'm going so will give you all a first hand update afterwards

Unless 'football politics' are sorted out between Kaunas FC and Lithuanian FA then it is odds on to be Vilnius and the most we will get is 700 tickets Considering they have been in dispute for over 2 years now it is highly unlikely they will resolve their problems

Nope, 100% 1945 Kick off, confirmed on every site I have seen (including SKY). Return match in Slovenia is also on a Sunday and that is 1700 kick off

Yes, sorry. Found it on a site headed FIFA -Wiki and wrongly assumed it was official - so possibly not as accurate as I thought but they do give venues for some games and not others so would not be surprised if it turns out to be correct. They do like playing games in Maribor

Odds on it will be Vilnius which means at best we will get 700 tickets

FIFA Site says game is being played in Maribor with an 1800 kick off. Capacity is 4,000 less than Ljubljana stadium at only 12,000

Our next home game v Slovenia has a 1945 kick off on a Sunday! I know FIFA have set the kick off times but surely the home association should have an input as to this. Different countries have different football cultures and surely FIFA should take account of this. For some this is not unusual but Saturday and Sunday nights have never been kick off times in Scotland and I dread to think of the crowd for this one. It will be a hard game against a very good team but I think we will struggle to get more than 25,000 in for that particularly if we don't get a result against England. FIFA don't give a s**t about fans

Buy it online paying the full price but ask for delivery to your local JD Sports shop and then collect from there. They can then see your membership card and will deduct the 15% discount which will then be refunded to your credit card (also saves you the cost of postage) I live in Kent and had to do that with my local JD store. You may find they will initially give you some blank looks but they will then phone head office who will confirm it is correct + just before Christmas an e-mail was sent to all stores in England confirming the discount deal so they may still remember anyway . . . 'simples' !

Naw! Always going to this one, Eurostar from Ebbsfleet (20 minute drive from my home) - 2 hrs on train to Paris and then the 90 minutes to Metz. Too easy . . . . now Mark, that is a different story . . . did you say chicken? See you there

I qualified (just!) and am booked on the 1340 from Paris 'Est' on Friday 3rd and back Sunday on 1157 to Paris = £60. Unfortunately these trains did not give a discount for over 60 but still a good price

Friday 3rd to Sunday 5th. Cancelled it just over 40 minutes ago so I assumed it would go straight back up for sale but there may be some sort of delay in the system before it becomes available. Good luck

For anyone still looking for a Hotel room in Metz I have just cancelled a twin room at the Hotel Alerion which is in the town centre opposite the main train station. Booked and cancelled through Booking.com so should still be there if you get cracking

Ditto! Looks like a nice hotel and great location. Sold out as well

Actually you will find it is still quite 'friendly'

Padre, if you are intent on going by bus. Megabus is showing as 4 euro return at the moment. Bus journey is over 4 hrs. 30 mins though and train only takes 95 minutes albeit a bit more expensive at around £45 - 60 depending on time of travel

I was at that game as well and had similar feelings. Great to see my old mate Peter Weir again (haven't seen him in years), he was all over that game and caused Celtic problems all night. My brother was the person who told 'Fergie' about Peter when he was still playing at Neilston Juniors and then a combination of his dad, me and my brother convinced him to sign for Saints. The rest is history!

Watershed, Sorry to be a nuisance but I booked two seats on your bus (which you somehow later multiplied to 4 for Bus 1 - we're big lads but that is just taking the p**s ) Can you please cancel my booking as we are now going to be leaving from elsewhere, I have no doubt you will fill my two seats easily enough but if not let me know. Sorry for any inconvenience John Lyons