DAVID LEASK and GERRY BRAIDEN

The first fan appeared in the late afternoon. He stood at the edge of Manchester's Piccadilly Gardens and blinked into the sun, his Union Jack waistcoat flapping in the slipstream of a passing tram.

This was the trailblazer, the pioneer, the vanguard of perhaps 100,000 more Scots to muster in this city in the next 48 hours. And he was thirsty.

The man in the waistcoat, five minutes later, had already scouted out one of the city pubs bracing itself for his countrymen. He wiped his forehead and dived into the bar. Outside was a clapperboard sign. It read: Rangers v Zenit St Petersburg. The Uefa Cup Final. Manchester, May 14.

"There are only two teams in the world that are like this," said Hugh Harkness, another pioneer in Manchester. "Rangers is one of them. Celtic is the other. They will take 50,000, 60,000, maybe 80,000 supporters wherever they go.

"People from other countries don't understand this. Really, neither do we."

Mr Harkness, a season ticket holder from Polmont, has experienced this before. Thirty-six years ago he was in Barcelona to see Rangers beat Moscow Dynamo and lift, for the first and only time, a European trophy, the Cup Winners' Cup. "There's nothing like it," he said, standing with his American wife, Jane, in his or hers matching Rangers tops and kagouls in a Manchester street. "We just had to be here, combine football with a wee holiday."

The couple, like the vast majority of Rangers fans making the trip from Scotland, have no tickets. Touts have been spotted, but amid warnings of forgeries, the Harknesses stayed clear of them. They also have no place to stay in Manchester.

Instead they have put themselves up in a room in Huddersfield, across the Pennines in Yorkshire. On Wednesday night and in the wee hours of Thursday morning they will join a mass exodus of red, white and blue supporters on trains and buses to hotels and B&Bs across the north of England.

The real influx is expected today. Manchester Airport said some 30 charter flights were due to land, including three 747s from St Petersburg, chartered by Nevsky Front, Zenit's oldest, biggest and most respected fan club.

Some Rangers fans are flying too, including whole squadrons from Northern Ireland. Most are crossing the border by car, train or bus.

Virgin Trains alone has sold 9000 tickets from Scotland to Manchester and fans' coaches, if parked end to end, would measure eight miles.

Scots are expected to outnumber Russians by 10 to one. That is what has got the authorities in Manchester worried. They are desperately keen for the world to see their city as a party capital. But for so many people?

Last night, the three fan zones planned for supporters were under construction, marquees pitched in public squares, complete with makeshift bars, giant screens, miles of crowd control fencing and several hundred portable toilets.

Manchester tried the same during the 2006 World Cup. It did not end well. Four fans were arrested after trouble and the screens were switched off for all England games. Later off-licences were accused of bulk-selling beer to fans.

Today, officials from the council will tour supermarkets and off-sales, making it clear such behaviour will not be tolerated this time.

How many pints of beer has the council bought for its own bars in the fan zones? "Pass," said a city spokesman. "We shall have to measure it by the tanker-load."

Back at Piccadilly Gardens, another Rangers fan last night wandered into the evening sunshine.

"They haven't a clue what is going to hit them when 100,000 of us arrive," said Kenny Pettigrew, the ticketless 44-year-old builder. "I have got my mum and my auntie and my 17-year-old son coming down. We are all here to party, win or lose."

Mr Pettigrew has a secret weapon for making new friends among Zenit supporters. Years ago he tattooed the word "Rangers", in Russia's Cyrillic script, on his forearm, below a British bulldog and five stars: "I did it so I could have a Rangers tattoo without getting into any bother, because nobody would know what it means," he said. "I never thought it would be this handy."

In print and online

The Herald will be providing extensive online coverage of the Uefa cup final all week from our team of reporters in Manchester.

Visit the blogs section for all the colour from our football blog, and sport for all the latest news and analysis as it happens.

Ken Smith will also be writing his diary from Manchester this week.