Amid all the hubbub surrounding Reading’s magnificent promotion, I was more than quietly impressed by the performance of Nottingham Forest at the Madejski Stadium last night. However, if you are trying to tell me that the smooth operators that graced the Mad Stad turf are piloted according to Steve Cotterill’s instructions while a certain Sean O’Driscoll is stationed behind the scenes, then you’ll be telling me that Bruce Rioch laid the groundwork for Arsène Wenger at the Arsenal. Forest uncannily resembled the Doncaster Rovers of 2006-2011, albeit at less of a cut price – the astonishing entry into the action of Andy…
All posts tagged Doncaster
Print Media Renaissance: the Popular Stand Fanzine
The rules and regulations of online comment, if indeed they exist at all, have been subject to much scrutiny in recent months. Legally, boundaries are not so much grey as pitch black and there has been a sense of finding one’s way through a minefield of potential problems. This site has been prominent in recounting the issues that have faced two Yorkshire based websites, Viva Rovers and Boy from Brazil after both bit the dust, and the closure of a cluster of other sources has left the footballing blogosphere in a state of flux. One response has been to return…
Hopeless Football League Teams 7: Doncaster Rovers, 1997-98
In Matt’s previous house there was a photo on the wall. It was of himself, sat on the grass, legs crossed, head bowed beneath his baseball cap. The picture was taken at Belle Vue as Doncaster Rovers took on Hull City. The date, Saturday 4th April 1998. The time, just after ten past three. The piece of grass on which Matt was sitting, the centre-spot. This was just one of many stand-out images from Doncaster Rovers’ 1997-98 season. That afternoon, if Rovers failed to win, the inevitability of relegation would become a reality. And so with knowledge that the press…
Sean O’Driscoll: a Primer
Nottingham Forest fans read on, for we are very pleased to welcome back Glen Wilson, steward of Doncaster Rovers’ Popular STAND Fanzine and late of award winning blog, Viva Rovers. Here Glen provides us with an insight into Sean O’Driscoll, recently installed in a supporting role to Steve Cotterill at the City Ground. ‘The natural state of the football fan is bitter disappointment’ wrote Nick Hornby and for the most part of course he is right. We are dreamers who specialise in crushing our own dream with pessimistic realism. We could win this… but we’ll probably chuck it away in…
Speaking out on the Internet: Present Status and Future Prospects
One of this website’s latest followers on Twitter, Simeon F. W. Pickup states his interests as ‘Reading FC, Atheism, Labour. In that order.’ Although Ed Miliband’s negligible impact on the polls may have something to do with his party being relegated behind Brian McDermott and Richard Dawkins in Simeon’s thinking, I did read this as tongue in cheek. Nonetheless, therein lies a message. Football has always been a major tugger of primary impulses but in recent years, its importance has become more intense. While before, communities will have rallied around a political party, a cause, a labour union or a…
James: Are the wealthy middle classes really the ones to back a football team...
Lanterne Rouge: Garath McCleary on signing for Reading today:
"It's amazing to be a...
Lloyd: On the Oxford / Reading thing, Lanterne, you write that "there is no c...
Ben: Yes, it does loom a bit, doesn't it? Moxey's comments on the ground re...
