Post by scriptman on Jun 7, 2008 11:29:51 GMT 1
This may come across as being a tad ungrateful... or a 'be careful what you wish for type' of post..... but something has been niggling me over the past few months, and that is Doncaster Rovers have lost the essence.... the heart and soul if you like...of what Doncaster Rovers stood for. It is a personal thing, the way I, as an individual, perceive it. ...I'm sure we all have different views.
I was a young'un in the early to mid 60s when my dad used to lift me over the turnstiles. In the late 60s and early 70s, I would try and find a way to watch the team without paying... I watched Donny throughout the 70s, 80s and 90s... although I did fall out with them for a few month after seeing the sickly face of Mark Weaver grinning like a Cheshire cat after some Donny fans were forcefully ejected from the ground.
What I'm trying to say, is that grassroots football is what Doncaster Rovers were all about. At Belle Vue, you could smell the atmosphere ... players were in touching distance and you could hear the crunching tackles. People used to pass the UB40 dole cards along the line behind them because you could get in cheaper if unemployed. The popular side had a few dozen singers congregated in the middle singing Molly Malone..... and the bar in the main stand was as rough and ready as they come.
The Keepmoat, by comparison, is a great stadium and the atmosphere can be awesome when three thousand Donny fans sing 'Rovers 'til I die' from the South Stand. It's not the Doncaster Rovers I know though.. it seems a million mile away from everything I came to love about the club.
I prefer the Keepmoat in the practical sense. It's comfortable, great views and reasonably nice food...... but it pains me to think I will never enjoy the experience again of the Doncaster Rovers I grew up with.
I like to think I've embraced the twenty-first century... but sometimes progress may not be a good thing for the soul.
I've been reading millersMAD and seen overriding support and excitement about their move to the Don Valley Stadium (and it is a terrific stadium)... but when memories of Millmoor come flooding back...it will hit them and they will miss what they had. Things will start looking to be impersonal and too harmonic because us South Yorkshire folk like a challenge. We like to look adversity in the eye.... we like to moan and have something to fight for ....... but when we get, sometimes we feel empty inside because there's nothing left to fight for.
Having said all of this, I'll still be at the Keepmoat next season. Doncaster Rovers is in my blood. My youngest is 11-year-old and has been a Donny fan for the last five years. He's only ever known successful times. Looks like he might be in for a rude awakening next season...... and if we struggle he’ll get a taste of what I had to put up with for thirty-five years.
I was a young'un in the early to mid 60s when my dad used to lift me over the turnstiles. In the late 60s and early 70s, I would try and find a way to watch the team without paying... I watched Donny throughout the 70s, 80s and 90s... although I did fall out with them for a few month after seeing the sickly face of Mark Weaver grinning like a Cheshire cat after some Donny fans were forcefully ejected from the ground.
What I'm trying to say, is that grassroots football is what Doncaster Rovers were all about. At Belle Vue, you could smell the atmosphere ... players were in touching distance and you could hear the crunching tackles. People used to pass the UB40 dole cards along the line behind them because you could get in cheaper if unemployed. The popular side had a few dozen singers congregated in the middle singing Molly Malone..... and the bar in the main stand was as rough and ready as they come.
The Keepmoat, by comparison, is a great stadium and the atmosphere can be awesome when three thousand Donny fans sing 'Rovers 'til I die' from the South Stand. It's not the Doncaster Rovers I know though.. it seems a million mile away from everything I came to love about the club.
I prefer the Keepmoat in the practical sense. It's comfortable, great views and reasonably nice food...... but it pains me to think I will never enjoy the experience again of the Doncaster Rovers I grew up with.
I like to think I've embraced the twenty-first century... but sometimes progress may not be a good thing for the soul.
I've been reading millersMAD and seen overriding support and excitement about their move to the Don Valley Stadium (and it is a terrific stadium)... but when memories of Millmoor come flooding back...it will hit them and they will miss what they had. Things will start looking to be impersonal and too harmonic because us South Yorkshire folk like a challenge. We like to look adversity in the eye.... we like to moan and have something to fight for ....... but when we get, sometimes we feel empty inside because there's nothing left to fight for.
Having said all of this, I'll still be at the Keepmoat next season. Doncaster Rovers is in my blood. My youngest is 11-year-old and has been a Donny fan for the last five years. He's only ever known successful times. Looks like he might be in for a rude awakening next season...... and if we struggle he’ll get a taste of what I had to put up with for thirty-five years.