Doncaster Rovers

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Doncaster Rovers
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Basic data
Surname Doncaster Rovers Football Club
Seat Doncaster
founding September 1879
president EnglandEngland Dick Watson
Board EnglandEngland David Blunt
Website doncasterroversfc.co.uk
First soccer team
Head coach JamaicaJamaica Darren Moore
Venue Keepmoat Stadium , Doncaster
Places 15,231
league EFL League One
2019/20 8th place
home
Away

Doncaster Rovers (officially: Doncaster Rovers Football Club ) - also known as Donny Rovers , The Rovers or Big Rovers - is an English football club from Doncaster , which plays its home games at the Keepmoat Stadium and is currently in the EFL League One , the third highest English division, is active. Four rounds before the end of the 2016/17 season, the return to the EFL League One was fixed. The women's team plays in the FA Women's Premier League National Division, the top division.

history

Foundation phase

When Albert Jenkins , an 18-year-old plumber in the service of the LNER , put together a football team to play against the Institute for Deaf-Dumbness in Yorkshire in September 1879 , the players named themselves the Doncaster Rovers after the game . The new club started out in blue jerseys with a yellow St. Andrew's cross , played their first official game in October against Rawmarsh and only played friendship games against nearby clubs until 1885/86. The club then moved into its first home ground near Bennetthorpe , behind the institute, and during this time swapped its colors for the red and white that is still valid today.

In 1888, the Rovers played their first game in the FA Cup and were defeated there in their own stadium Rotherham Town with 1: 9. Two years later, the Rovers joined the newly formed Midland Football Alliance , played their first game in September against Loughborough and won the first trophy this season after beating Sheffield United with the Sheffield & Hallamshire Challenge Cup . In addition, the club won the runner-up behind the Notts County Rovers in the same year.

After Sheffield United withdrew from the Midland League , the Rovers took their place in the league and made their debut there in September 1891 against Wednesbury . After the first championship in 1899, the club joined the Football League at the beginning of the 1901/02 season , started there with a 3: 3 against Port Vale and finished in seventh place in the Second Division at the end of the season to this day represents the best championship placement in the club's history. Only a year later, however, the club had to leave the league again and play in the Midland League, with the 12-0 defeat by Small Heath in the second season of the Second Division being the highest defeat in the club's history. After another Second Division season in the 1904/05 season, which the club finished bottom of the table with only eight points won (also the club's own negative record to this day), the Rovers played permanently in the Midland League until the outbreak of the First World War . After the end of the war, the club returned to the Midland League for the 1920/21 season and after a runner-up in 1923 joined the Three North Division .

Three years after the Rovers had bought the Belle Vue Stadium , they played their first official encounter there in August 1923 against Wigan Borough . The team, which produced players like Fred Emery and Tommy Keetley , now established itself in the Football League and rose as champions in 1935 to the Second Division, which they had to leave two years later as bottom of the table. After two runners-up in the third division, the game was then interrupted due to the Second World War.

The Peter Doherty era in the 1950s

In the first season after the resumption, the Rovers rose with a record number of 72 points valid until the 1980s, with Clarrie Jordan reaching 42 championship goals, which is the club's own record to this day. However, the club rose again in the following season after Jordan had been given to Sheffield Wednesday , among other things .

In the 1948/49 season, the direct resurgence did not succeed, but the club signed Peter Doherty of Huddersfield Town in April a new player-coach , which heralded an extremely successful time. Doherty signed players like the later 14-time Northern Ireland international Len Graham , rose in his first season, which attracted up to 20,000 spectators to the stadium, and contributed 27 goals himself. In 1948 there was 37,149 spectators in the third division game against Hull City , which is still valid today. The Rovers remained until 1959 in the Second Division and brought the striker Alick Jeffrey in 1954, a 15-year-old talent out, sometimes even on the Matt Busby of Manchester United showed interest. The change, however, tragically did not materialize, as Jeffrey broke his leg in a U23 international match for England against France , which meant that he had to take a six-year break and was only able to return to Australia and Lincoln City for the Rovers in 1969 .

Stay in the lower English professional leagues

After relegation in 1959 to the Third Division, the second consecutive relegation followed, now for the first time in the Fourth Division . The best times were over for now and the Rovers played permanently in fourth class until 1981, interrupted only by brief periods in the 1966/67 season and between 1969 and 1971 in the third division.

The 1980s saw a slight improvement under former Scottish national team captain and Leeds United Billy Bremner . After the first two-year stay in the third division between 1981 and 1983, the club was able to secure four more seasons in the third division from 1984, although Bremner had returned to Leeds between 1985 and 1988, but then rejoined the Rovers for two years. The club was distinguished at the time by an extremely successful youth work and after victories against Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City reached the final of the FA Youth Cup , which was lost to Arsenal , as the lowest team to date .

The decline in the Ken Richardson era

After the club was unable to convert the good youth work into sustainable success and since 1988 has been permanently fourth-rate again, Ken Richardson initially took over the majority in the club in 1993 and later became the sole owner. Richardson, who had previously drawn negative attention in horse racing when he ran a horse under a false name, initially bought a number of good quality players, but these did not lead to any significant sporting improvement for the club. Richardson put the Belle Vue Stadium up for sale nationwide, even though it was owned by the City of Doncaster on a 99-year lease . Two years later, two men were arrested while trying to set a fire in the stadium. In March 1996, Richardson was arrested and sentenced three years later for inciting the crime. The club played after numerous departures, which were necessary after the departure of Richardson to compensate for the increased costs, in the amateur league Conference National after they had completed the fourth division as bottom of the table.

Recent developments

The financial rescue followed in the person of John Ryan , a plastic surgeon who invested £ 4.5 million in his hometown club with Irish company Westferry . This meant salvation from the impending bankruptcy and it was followed by well-known former players such as Neville Southall , John Sheridan and Steve Nicol , who from now on looked after the club and were to bring it back to the Football League. Despite the great popularity in the form of up to 7,000 spectators, it was not until 2003 that the club returned to the Football League in third place via the play-offs .

This was followed by the direct march through as fourth division champions in the newly established Football League One , as the third English division should be called from now on. There, the team coached by Sean O'Driscoll stayed mostly in midfield, until 2008, when they won the play-off final against Leeds United at Wembley Stadium, they even achieved promotion to the Football League Championship . After a total of four seasons, Doncaster rose again in 2012 to the third highest division and played again in League One in 2012/13 . In November 2013, John Ryan retired from the club as chairman. In June 2014 it was announced that Louis Tomlinson , a member of the One Direction band , wanted to take over his home club as a partner along with the club's former chairman, John Ryan. Afterwards, however, it was announced that a deal had not come off because the crowdfunding campaign did not generate enough money and was considered unsafe.

Trainer

player

League affiliation

  • 1890-1891: Midland Alliance
  • 1891-1901: Midland League
  • 1901–1903: Football League Second Division
  • 1903-1904: Midland League
  • 1904–1905: Football League Second Division
  • 1905-1923: Midland League
  • 1923-1935: Football League Third Division
  • 1935–1937: Football League Second Division
  • 1937–1947: Football League Third Division
  • 1947–1948: Football League Second Division
  • 1948–1950: Football League Third Division
  • 1950–1958: Football League Second Division
  • 1958–1959: Football League Third Division
  • 1959–1966: Football League Fourth Division
  • 1966–1967: Football League Third Division
  • 1967-1969: Football League Fourth Division
  • 1969–1971: Football League Third Division
  • 1971–1981: Football League Fourth Division
  • 1981–1983: Football League Third Division
  • 1983–1984: Football League Fourth Division
  • 1984–1988: Football League Third Division
  • 1988–1992: Football League Fourth Division
  • 1992–1998: Football League Third Division
  • 1998-2003: Conference National
  • 2003-2004: Football League Third Division
  • 2004-2008: Football League One
  • 2008–2012: Football League Championship
  • 2012-2013: Football League One
  • 2013-2014: Football League Championship
  • 2014-2016: Football League One
  • 2016-2017: EFL League Two
  • since 2017: EFL League One

Women's soccer

The Doncaster Rovers Belles Ladies Football Club (short: Doncaster Belles LFC) played from 2011 to 2013 in the FA Women's Super League , the top division in English women's football. After they finished last among the eight teams in 2013, they were affected by the expansion of the WSL by a lower WSL 2, as the classification in this new WSL 2 was tantamount to relegation. The club is one of the most successful English women's football clubs and is associated with the Doncaster Rovers.

history

The club was founded under the name Doncaster Belles LFC in 1969. The founding fathers were lottery ticket sellers at the Belle Vue Stadium. In 1983 the first trophy was won with the cup victory over St. Helens. Between 1983 and 1994, the Belles reached eleven of twelve cup finals and were successful six times. In 2000 and 2004 the club reached the cup final again, but lost both times. In the League Cup , the Belles reached the final in 1994 and 1996, but lost both here too. In 2001 and 2003 the Belles were in the FA Women's Charity Shield and were also unsuccessful. In the championship, the club was runner-up in 2001, 2002 and 2003.

The 2005/06 season was finished fourth. The team is coached by former Leeds United and Doncaster Rovers professional John Buckley.

successes

  • English runner-up in 2001, 2002, 2003
  • English cup winner 1983, 1987, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1994
  • English cup finalist 1984, 1985, 1986, 1991, 1993, 2000, 2002
  • English league cup finalist 1994, 1996
  • FA Women's Charity Shield finalist: 2001, 2003

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ One Direction's Louis Tomlinson: Doncaster takeover confirmed (English), accessed April 7, 2016
  2. ↑ Louis Tomlinson: Doncaster Rovers takeover is off - John Ryan , accessed April 7, 2016