The Doncaster Rovers Miscellany E-Book

Robert Marshall

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 185

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

The Doncaster Rovers Miscellany is jam-packed with facts, stats, trivia, stories and legends. Featured here are loads of stories about the club from its inception in 1879 to the present day. Here you will find player feats, individual records and plenty of weird and wonderful tales, quotes ranging from the profound to the downright bizarre and cult heroes from yesteryear – a book no true Rovers fan should be without.

Leseprobe

First published 2011

The History Press

The Mill, Brimscombe Port

Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 2QG

www.thehistorypress.co.uk

This ebook edition first published in 2017

© Robert Marshall, 2011

The right of Robert Marshall to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

EPUB ISBN 978 0 7509 8384 6

Typesetting and origination by The History Press

eBook converted by Geethik Technologies

FOREWORD by Laurie Sheffield

To be honest, I was not particularly excited when Rovers first came in to sign me. They were a side in the same division as my club, Newport County, and the move did not instantly appear much of a progression. That said, though, I was aware of the quality of players already at Doncaster and the club had a nice feeling about it, which was felt among all the players at that time. I knew straight away that it was the right move and I quickly settled in South Yorkshire – I loved the type of people in Doncaster and the town quickly became home. I would regularly go out before games to find people shouting messages of support, offering gifts of fruit from the market stalls, and I often returned home with armfuls of apples and bananas.

I was fortunate enough to play in a hugely talented and successful team which won the Division Four championship in 1966. We were together as a group both on and off the pitch, we would all work hard for each other on a Saturday afternoon then we’d all be out on a Saturday night together. That kind of atmosphere created a huge unity, which contributed significantly to our successes on the pitch. I felt that bond most keenly with my strike partner and great friend, Alick Jeffrey. We got on incredibly well, even 40 years later we were still going on holiday together.

Alick was simply a brilliant footballer, but I was also ideal for his game. All the other teams focused on how to stop Alick, they used to try to rough him up and use physical tactics but that was my job for Doncaster Rovers. I was strong and fit and I could stop the centre-halves from doing their job – I used to cause problems for them and Alick dropped off and made great use of the room I had created. It worked for us and we scored many, many goals together.

I remember Alick never liked training but he was such a character he always seemed to get away with it. If we were up against two good centre-backs and weren’t getting any joy, I used to work the channels. I’d go to chase the full-back’s ball down the wing and I’d pass Alick on the way. He’d be blowing hard, cheeks puffed out trying to catch his breath. I’d be chasing all over the pitch then all of a sudden Alick would get the ball 30 yards out and smash it into the top corner of the goal, then he’d come over to me and say ‘I don’t like doing all that running Laurie!’

My job throughout my career was to put people under pressure and to score goals. They used to give me the number nine shirt and that shirt was for one thing only. I loved to watch good players play good football in midfield but I was there for one reason, to score goals.

I am delighted to be invited down to every match at the Keepmoat Stadium and I have been thrilled with the recent success. The club still look after me and I am happy to do as much as I can with sponsors and supporters’ groups in return.

I played for a number of clubs all around the country and enjoyed a very fruitful career, but Doncaster and my time with the Rovers was, without a shadow of a doubt, the best.

Laurie Sheffield, 2011

INTRODUCTION

In May 2003, Rovers winger Fran Tierney scored a goal that was golden in every sense imaginable. It was the goal which won the Conference play-off final and sent Doncaster Rovers back into the Football League, marking a new chapter in the history of the club and a return from the darkest days it has ever endured.

Since its birth in 1879, never has the club had its very existence threatened in such as way as befell it during the mid-1990s. Owner Ken Richardson’s attempt to strip the life from the club, centring on the site on which its Belle Vue home stood, was littered with controversy and deceit. An attempt to sell Belle Vue, despite the fact it was owned by the council, was quickly followed by an arson attack on the Main Stand and then, with the likelihood of any financial gain drifting from view, a seemingly unwavering desire to see the club fall into extinction followed. The club endured a season like no other in 1997/98, finishing 92nd in a league structure made up of ninety-two clubs; they were finally cut adrift of the Football League with the ink dry on what appeared to be the final chapter of a story that had been over 100 years in the making.

The club had enjoyed better times along the way, flirting with Football League membership at the turn of the twentieth century, breaking records (which have still to be bettered) during the 1946/47 season in winning the Third Division North title and enjoying a stint in English football’s second tier throughout the 1950s under the forward-thinking tutelage of a once-supreme footballer in Peter Doherty, with a host of talented footballers. The club enjoyed FA Cup runs which delighted packed Belle Vue audiences who regularly numbered above 20,000.

The club battled to recapture these former glories throughout the next three decades, tantalisingly brushing with better days with names like Kitchen, O’Callaghan and Miller still providing much to cheer. The great Billy Bremner arrived to punch some passion back into the club during the late 1980s before almost strangling financial constraints led to the involvement of Richardson (later found guilty and imprisoned for the arson attack on Belle Vue) and his subsequent criminal decline of the club. The funeral of the club was held at the final game of that disastrous year in 1998 but the party after the wake was hosted by John Ryan, who managed to acquire the club shortly afterwards and restore life back through its tired and bruised exterior.

That goal in Stoke in 2003 marked the return of Doncaster Rovers and the celebrations that day were made all the more sweet because of all the heartache that had gone before. The club has continued to go from strength to strength, winning the Third Division the following year, the Football League Trophy, then the sweetest of days at Wembley before becoming established as a Championship side of real quality. It is safe to say that Rovers fans have never had it so good, but there are still a great many things that I look back on, good and bad, with great fondness and a smile.

Robert Marshall, 2011

HONOURS

Football League:

Division 2 Best season: 7th, 1901/02

Division 3 Champions: 2003/04

Division 3 (N) Champions: 1934/35, 1946/47, 1949/50

Division 4 Champions 1965/66, 1968/69

Runners-Up:

Division 3 (N): 1937/38, 1938/39

Division 4: 1983/84. Promoted 1980/81 (3rd)

League One play-off final winners: 2008

Football Conference play-off final winners: 2003

FA Cup: Best season: fifth round: 1952, 1954, 1955, 1956

Football League Cup: Best season: fifth round: 1976

Johnstone’s Paint Trophy: winners 2007

Conference Trophy: winners 1999, 2000

Sheffield County Cup: winners 1891, 1912, 1936, 1938, 1956, 1968, 1976, 1986

Midlands Counties League: Champions 1897, 1899

Sheffield & Hallamshire Senior Cup: winners 2001, 2002

Yorkshire Electricity Cup: winners 1995/96

STATS

Record Attendance: 37,149 v Hull City

Rovers’ record attendance came in 1948 in a Division Three North game at Belle Vue when they played host to Hull City on 2 October in a match which attracted 37,149 spectators and ended 0–0. The club’s record attendance since the move to the new Keepmoat Stadium came on 1 April 2008 as 15,001 watched the League One game against Leeds United.

Record Victory: 10–0 v Darlington

The Rovers’ record league victory came on 25 January 1964 in a Division Four match against Darlington. They actually enjoyed a number of high-scoring games against the ‘Quakers’ throughout the 1960s but this was by far the most one-sided. The Rovers scorers that day were Hale (4), Booth (2), Ripley (2), Windross and Broadbent.

Record Defeat: 12–0 v Small Heath

The club’s record defeat was at the hands of Small Heath in a Second Division game on 11 April 1903 when the club, still in its infancy, were beaten 12–0.

Highest League Scorer in Season: Clarrie Jordan, 42

Clarrie Jordan scored the club’s record number of league goals in one season. The forward found the back of the net 42 times during the record-breaking season in 1946/47. His incredible personal goal tally led the side to the Division Three North league title.

Most Goals in a Game: Tom Keetley, 6

The most goals scored by a Rovers player in one match came during the 1928/29 season; Tom Keetley scored 6 of the Rovers’ goals in the thrilling 7–4 win at Ashington.

Most Capped Player

Len Graham is the club’s most capped player, winning 14 caps for Northern Ireland while with Rovers.

Record Appearances

Fred Emery is the club’s record appearance holder making 417 outings in the league for Doncaster between 1924 and 1928. He played in an additional 20 FA Cup matches during his Rovers career, just ahead of Colin Douglas – fans’ favourite ‘Duggie’ made 404 league appearances for the club in two spells between 1981 and 1993.

Youngest Player

Alick Jeffrey made his Rovers debut at the age of 15 years, 229 days in 1954 against Fulham at Belle Vue to become the club’s youngest ever player.

Record League Goalscorer

Tom Keetley amassed 180 league goals between 1923 and 1929 for the Rovers following the First World War, with the club being re-elected into the Football League at the start of the decade. Despite his outstanding personal record, the club never managed a finish higher than fourth place and did not achieve promotion during his time with the club.

Highest League Finish

The Rovers’ best overall finish came at the end of the 1901/02 season when they finished in seventh place in Division Two during the club’s first ever year in the Football League.

Highest Number of points

The club’s highest points tally was recorded in 2004 when Rovers finished champions of the Third Division and amassed 92 points from over the course of the league campaign.

Record Transfer Fee Paid

During the summer of 2010 Rovers smashed their transfer record to sign striker Billy Sharp from Sheffield United. Sharp had spent much of the previous season on loan and ended the campaign as the side’s top goalscorer which prompted the club to pay a record £1.15 million fee to secure his services on a full-time basis.

Record Transfer Fee Received

During the close season in 2009, Reading paid £2 million to sign Rovers player Matt Mills. The powerful central defender had joined on a full-time basis the year before, having spent a year on loan from Manchester City. The club had paid a then record £300,000 to sign Mills from City so his departure 12 months later represented good business (off the field at least . . .).

THE BEGINNINGS

On a midsummer’s evening in 1879, a group of Doncaster’s young men met with the intention of forming a football club to represent their town. This was to prove the spark which would lead to one such young man, 18-year-old Albert Jenkins, assembling a group to play in an exhibition game of Association Football against the Yorkshire Institute for the Deaf, following an invitation from the headmaster of the school. Mr Jenkins and his team fought out a 4–4 draw from being 4–0 down and as they walked back into the town a decision was made by those present that they should form a football club under the name ‘Doncaster Rovers’.

The first game played as the newly formed club took place on 3 October 1879 at Rawmarsh and also ended in a draw. Doncaster Rovers Football Club had been born. The team would play a number of friendly exhibition matches against local teams throughout the following decade, faring well in terms of results.

In 1872 the club held its first AGM and elected a chairman, secretary, treasurer and committee members and continued to be run with a proficient style. The formation of the Football League in 1888 was, however, still a league too far from the amateur outfit but the side did enter the FA Challenge Cup that season for the first time, with defeat to Rotherham Town in the first qualifying round doing nothing to dampen the rise of the football club.

In 1891, following a season playing in the newly formed Midland Alliance League, the club successfully applied for membership of the Midland League and was crowned champions of that league only 6 years later.

The 1901/02 season saw Rovers make their debut in the Football League following the news that New Brighton had folded, and Doncaster were the club next in line to join, with the club’s first ever Football League game being played on 7 September 1901, a creditable and exciting 3–3 draw with Port Vale, and went on to finish in an impressive seventh place in Division Two – which still remains the club’s highest ever placing within the Football League.

The side could not reproduce these efforts the following season and finished third from bottom and subsequently, somewhat controversially, failed to be re-elected. Another season in the Midland League ended with re-election back to the Football League with the club taking the step of forming as a limited company, and Doncaster Rovers Football and Athletic Club Ltd was incorporated on 1 July 1904.

On the pitch, however, things didn’t go so well and Rovers finished bottom of Division Two, managing only eight points all season – a record which still stands as the fewest points in Football League history! The club failed to achieve re-election following such a dismal display and returned to the Midland League, which would become home for the club for almost 20 years.

Following the First World War the club established itself as one of the best in the Midland League and eventually were voted back where they belonged at the beginning of the 1923/24 season as one of twenty-two clubs in the Football League Division Three (North) – league status the club would retain, unbroken, for some 75 years.

CULT HEROES – MICKEY NORBURY

Mickey Norbury will always be considered something of a hero by Doncaster fans after scoring a hat-trick against Scunthorpe United at Glanford Park in Rovers’ 5–0 demolition of their rivals. Former jail bird ‘Mental’ Mickey joined Rovers in 1994 having enjoyed a good record at Preston North End; however he suffered a broken leg at Deepdale which kept him out for 18 months and his promising career never really recovered. At Rovers he proved a decent, hardworking strike partner for the more skilful Graeme Jones, though he himself didn’t find the net throughout the whole of the 1994/95 league season before suddenly scoring 5 goals in as many games. He left the club for Halifax the following season and drifted into the non-league game where he enjoyed some success as a striker in the Conference.

In January 2007, while Goole’s assistant manager, he was handed a 6-year touchline ban having been charged with two accounts of foul and abusive language and threatening behaviour towards referees.

‘I’ve had my share of sendings off but never once have I threatened a referee – until this season.’ However, happily this ban was later reduced to 182 days following an appeal.

Sometimes hot-headed and occasionally reckless, Mickey was no stranger to red and yellow cards throughout his career, but his performance at Glanford Park made him a cult figure among Rovers fans. In total he made 27 appearances for the Rovers, scoring 5 times.

BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM

David Beckham scored his first Football League goal against Doncaster Rovers while on loan at Preston North End in February 1995. Coming on as a substitute, 19-year-old Beckham scored direct from a corner to help Preston hold the Rovers to a 2–2 draw at Deepdale during a Division Three encounter.

ROVERS GREATS – 1920s

Tom Keetley

One of twelve brothers, four of whom played for the club during the 1920s, Tom Keetley joined the Rovers from Bradford Park Avenue in 1923. He went on to become one of the most significant members of the team. He spent six seasons at Belle Vue and scored more than 20 goals every term, and is Rovers’ all-time leading goalscorer with an incredible 180 goals.

During the 1926/27 season, Keetley bagged an amazing 36 league goals in 36 games, an incredible scoring record over the course of a season that never looked like being surpassed. That was, however, until two years later when in 1929 Keetley finished top of the scoring charts with 40 league goals in just 32 matches, including an outstanding performance in a match at Ashington when he scored 6 of the Rovers goals in a 7–4 victory.

He was a legend while at Rovers, so it is understandable that consternation resounded around Belle Vue in October 1928 when he was placed on the transfer list at his own request, having had a disagreement with the board over the terms of his benefit. Eventually the dispute was resolved with the club guaranteeing a sum from a match to be played against Hearts. Evidently, however, the problems with the board were never totally resolved and the following summer Keetley declined to re-sign for the club, instead preferring to move back to Derbyshire to be closer to his business interests there. The fee the club received from Second Division Notts County went towards offsetting the loss the club had accrued the following season, however the loss of Keetley’s goals would have left a bigger void in any team than the one on the balance sheet.

The goals continued to flow at his new club, where he still holds the club record for goals scored in a single season with 39, and he scored a total of 94 goals in 103 games for Notts County. When his career ended in 1934 following a brief spell with Lincoln City, he had made a total of 330 league appearances, which yielded a return of 284 goals.

Keetley was a goalscorer the likes of which are seldom seen; his record in a Rovers shirt (185 goals in 241 appearances in all competitions for the club) is unparalleled, with the biggest surprise of all being that Rovers never achieved promotion during his time at the club, despite his goals. Quite simply, Tom Keetley was the club’s greatest ever goalscorer.

FEED THE WORLD

During the club’s time in non-league football, a number of fans made the trip to Hayes for a Conference match. The game had got underway when the local police decided they had better play things safe and decided to segregate the crowd. A quick shuffle on the terraces had the desired effect, but unfortunately left most of the Rovers fans cut off from the ground’s snack bar, leading to the visiting fans spontaneous performance of ‘Feed the world, Donny know its dinner time.’ However, the song was rather less successful than the Bob Geldof-inspired original, and the journey back to South Yorkshire remained a hungry one.

HOME DRAW . . . OR NOT

During the 1934/35 season Doncaster Rovers enjoyed the unusual distinction of not drawing a single home game. The side won 16 out of 21 games on home soil that year and only drew 5 games on their travels en route to winning the Third Division North title, using a total of only 19 players during the 42 matches.

AWAY DAYS

The immediate post-war seasons saw Rovers enjoy some notable successes, winning the Third Division twice. However, both were seasons when Rovers fans would have been best served by watching the team on the road. Unusually, in 1946/47 the team accrued 37 points away from home, winning 19 of 21 matches, as opposed to the 35 points they picked up at home. Amazingly, this anomaly cropped up again in 1949/50 as the team again won the league by picking up 28 points on their travels against 27 at home.

ROVERS GREATS – 1930s

Fred Emery

Following brief spells with Lincoln City and Bradford City, Fred joined Rovers in the summer of 1924 but had to wait until December to make his debut in a 1–0 win at home to Hartlepool when he was drafted in as replacement to the injured full-back Wigglesworth. He made a total of just 11 appearances that season but did play in 4 of the final 5 games. Beginning the following season firmly in the first team, he missed just 4 games all year.

A talented and composed player he was primarily used as a left-half but he had enough quality to play anywhere in defence. Always a reliable and consistent performer he became a key element in the Rovers team, eventually being made club captain for the start of the 1932/33 season.

It was under his guidance as team captain that Rovers won the Third Division North championship during the 1934/35 season; again a picture of consistency he played in all of the club’s first 37 league games providing a key component in the Rovers defence.

It was as a result of this experience as skipper, allied with the high regard with which he was held at Belle Vue that led to his appointment as player-manager in 1936, filling the vacancy left by David Menzies’ departure. He combined playing with the role of manager for a short time, with his final appearance in a Rovers shirt coming away at Tottenham in April 1936. The following season the team felt his absence on the pitch hard as they conceded 84 league goals and were relegated back to Division Three.