Wanderers 1, LOKOMOTIV PLOVDIV 1: El-Hadj Diouf scored a 71st minute headed equaliser to inspire the 20,000 watching Wanderers' UEFA Cup adventure begin at a rainy, wind-swept Reebok Stadium on Thursday night,

Wanderers trailed to a first-half breakaway shock goal converted sharply by Jancevski.

The attendance was announced as 19,723 which in view of the poor weather and live TV coverage on Channel Five is probably better than expected.

Wanderers: Jaaskelainen, Pedersen, Jaidi, N'Gotty, Hunt, Campo, Gardner, Okocha, Nakata, Stelios, Diouf.

Subs Not Used: Walker, Nolan, Davies, Borgetti, Fernandes, O'Brien, Faye.

Plovdiv: Kolev, Ivanov, Tunchev, Halimi, Jancevski, Iliev, Kotev, Dimitrov, Petrov, Giordani, Krizimanic.

Subs Not Used: Kamburov, Stoynev, Zlatinski, Mihailou, Vandev, Georgiev, Hristev.

PREVIEW: Players' appeal to fans for UEFA debut

WAVERING Wanderers fans were urged to drag themselves away from their armchairs and out of the pubs and give their team a rousing send off on their first European adventure.

Predicted crowd figures for Thursday's historic UEFA Cup clash with Lokomotiv Plovdiv have stunned the Bolton players, who fear the Reebok Stadium could be little more than half full, largely as a result of the game being screened live on Channel Five.

They know they offered little in the way of encouragement with their lacklustre performance in Sunday's scoreless draw with Blackburn, but have appealed to their most loyal supporters not to desert them when they need them most.

"It's a big thing for the town to be playing in Europe for the first time, but it looks like the fans are not very interested about the game because it is live on the telly," said Stelios - a European Champion with Greece and a Champions League regular in his Olympiakos days.

"But we need their support. This is a new journey for the team and we don't want the fans staying at home or in the pubs watching the match, we want them in the stadium."

Sam Allardyce fears his players, who are accustomed to playing to near-capacity crowds in the Premiership, might struggle to achieve a positive result if there isn't a significant improvement on pre-match ticket sales, which are around the 15,000 mark. And, although he accepts that the poor quality of the Blackburn match could have discouraged many from showing their support, Stelios says this is an ideal opportunity for the supporters to show what they are made of.

"These are the times we need their help, not the easy times but the times when things are not so pretty, especially after the match against Blackburn because we know it was a very bad match to watch.

"When you are going well, you know the house is going to be full, it's when you are not going so well that youn need the support most."

Although among the seeded teams and favourites to progress into the group stages, Wanderers will not underestimate Plovdiv, although they know little about the Bulgarians other than what they saw in a video session on Wednesday morning.

Stelios stressed the need for caution.

"It's a good chance for us to go through to the groups, but it will not be an easy game for us," he said. "They are opponents we don't know much about so we have to be careful.

"We have to score without conceding goals so that we will have no trouble in the second leg.

"We have to be very professional, as we are in the Premiership, and pay attention to the details because, if we don't get it right, then maybe we'll have problems in the second game.

"I want to at least get into the groups, then we'll see what draw we get.

"If we do qualify for the groups, maybe the fans will have a chance to watch some very big games, home and away. And we have the players who can cope with that.

"In the Premiership, week-in and week-out, we play against some of the best teams in Europe so that is not something that would be new to us."