Derry City's European trip to Gibraltar: Tickets, live bus route tracker, fans zones, live streaming

​With renovations being done at their traditional base Victoria Stadium, The Magpies must host their first round Uefa Conference League qualifier against the Candy Stripes at the much smaller and more remote Europa Point venue on the very tip of the British Overseas territory.There was much disappointment about the 256 tickets being allocated to Derry at the 770 seater stadium on Thursday considering the large contingent of travelling fans. However, Dalli and the club have been working around the clock to ensure the tie is a successful one and he says there's been no shortage of logistical headaches along the way.It's been a 'learning curve', explained Dalli: "You have no idea how hectic the situation is in terms of the stadium. It's the first time we will play in that stadium. It's the first time we are doing a European campaign there. It's the first time for everything and Magpies are the guinea pigs. And then Lincoln play and then St Joseph's play against Shelbourne."So the Shelbourne game [against St Joseph's] will be 10 times better run than ours. We are the guinea pigs of this whole situation, the policing, the security, where things can go wrong, what can we do better. We've never done anything there. So it's all a learning curve right now."Victoria Stadium I could tell you everything - the entry points, everything. With Europa Point it's very hard."We had a meeting with the government, with police, security, ambulance and had contingency plans with everything. We have contingency plans for traffic. It's the first major event which is happening at the end of Gibraltar so all the buses, travelling and all that stuff has to be organised."

Dalli has been working closely with local pubs and public transport operators to ensure Derry fans are catered for when they arrive in Gibraltar.

"There is a bus service which is the No.2 bus service [for live tracker click here] which will basically take you to the entrance of the stadium," he explained. "Remember Gibraltar is half of what Derry is. Not even half. It's very small. So what roads we have to corner off have all been spoken about and other logistical things that need sorted.

"There's nothing in the area for those fans who don't have tickets and the police will be segregating the whole complex. So we will have a place called Ocean Village where the marina is and we've already spoken to a few pubs to have their own fans zones around there and they will be able to televise the game there.

"This never used to happen at Victoria Stadium because Ocean Bay is five minutes walk from the stadium but it's an hour walk from Europa Point."I am doing everything possible for Derry fans to be able to be catered for and have a good experience here. Win, draw or lose. I can't do much more and can't answer messages from random Twitters, random Facebooks, random Instagrams."I understand because you have to pay for your flights to Gibraltar and then you go and don't have a ticket. I understand that, I really do but unfortunately I don't want them to come here and not be able to go there because it would be horrible for them."The early kick-off time has been a hot topic of conversation between the two clubs as Magpies requested an earlier time due to the absence of a back-up generator for the stadium floodlights. Uefa has agreed on a 6pm kick-off [local time] at which time it's expected to reach around 30 degrees. While it obviously hands the Gibraltarians an advantage, Dalli insists there was no other option."Those back-up generators cost lots of money. Yes, of course, it's advantageous for us to play at that time but it's also tiring for us. The heats for both sets of players, not just one. Yes, we're used to it but dude, when I go to the beach I get burned. Maybe I take five minutes longer than you but I get burned too. It's for both of us. In respect to everything I really feel that there's nothing more we could have done."

Danish Superliga giants, Copenhagen is the carrot dangling for both clubs as they await the winners in the second round and Dalli stressed the importance the projected revenue from that fixture would be to the club.

"It changes everything. The thing people have to realise about us is that we don't have regular gate income. Derry have fans that pay gate money. We have 150 people maximum that come to a league game. The numbers for European games are better because everything comes together. It's for the betterment of Gibraltar football."But you end up having TV rights, ticket sales. Against Copenhagen you have half your budget from the league. I don't have that sustainable regular income that Derry would have."So for us it's a major incentive to go through. A round is x amount of money plus the possibility of making more money. That 100 grand or 150 grand is money we would otherwise never see, ever! So we always run on a very, very tight budget. We have an investor who puts money in and it's more like playing black or red."Our income is very limited. We get things from the Federation but it's not enough to be able to compete in Europe. I know the budgets that Irish teams have.Dundlak, Derry, Shelbourne, they are past £1.5 or £2million in budget easily. So there's a massive discrepancy there in terms of budget."Dalli pleaded the fifth when asked how preparations with the team have been going but he doesn't expect there to be much between the teams on matchnight.

"So in terms of a level, League Two, National League, Conference - it all depends. Maybe even the low end or higher end of Ireland or Northern Ireland," he said when comparing standards of the two leagues.

"We've had good results in the past against Larne. We've had results against Crusaders and Dundalk. So I think we are very similar but the difference is leagues like Ireland, the league itself is much more professional than our league. Teams are different. You would have four or five Gibraltar teams who I think could compete very healthily in the top four of any of the two leagues. I really do believe that. But our league is completely all over the place.

"We don't have a structure of the league and we don't have a brand. We have the federation running it because they have to and we don't have the capabilities of doing it."You have Lincoln, us and Joseph's and one or two other teams who have an injection of money coming in and that's when you see differences. We have been gradually growing. There's people who have come here with budgets of £1.6 million and they've gone to shit in less than six months. So it's not all about money."We have rules in the league as well where you have to have four home grown players at any given time on the pitch. So you always have to play a local. Looking at our size, we are 35,000 people and we have to play with four locals on the pitch!"You have to have eight or 10 signed in your club. We have 11 teams so that's 110 local players and I think there's only 30 or 40 at a very good standard. So you could imagine, Lincoln have 10, we have 10, St Joseph's have 10 and we already have 60% of the league because of the local rule."

Magpies have changed toward a full-time training set-up this season and Dalli hopes it will be beneficial."This year we have changed the structure in terms of training programmes so this year we will be going full-time this coming season. We are training at 3pm. We've just come to an agreement with a Spanish team to be able to use their facilities so we will part-own their club in the lowest division in Spain where there's no competition at all. It's just like a Sunday league but they have a good facility which is what we don't have."

The importance of qualifying for Europe every season has magnified.

"If we didn't make Europe two seasons in a row then that's when you start allowing yourself and changing projects, going younger and resetting the button.We have semi-reset this year because we could've won the league and injuries and stuff we haven't. So for me it changes everything now. We have more English based people which again changes the mentality. We have an assistant manager who we have brought in who is English. So there's a lot of things we have changed but managed to keep our own identity."

Thursday’s match will be streamed live by Solidsport here

For those fans looking for a local taxi service contact +35020070027