These Promotion shirts....

[sheffield exile1]

Had an e mail inviting me to own an extremely limited edition promotion shirt available only to 2017/18 Silver Membership holders.
The promotion shirts are extremely rare with only 20 shirts available, so if you want to add one to your collection, head over to the Box Office with a valid form of identification. Doncaster Rovers limited addition promotion shirts can be purchased for only £20, subject to availability (limited to one per silver membership and are only available in the following sizes M, L and XL). 
So 20 shirts and only up to XL.
My point is this. We limped over the line when we could have had an open top bus parade at 60 odd minutes at Hartlepool, so to me this can only be described as how to celebrate second best, I won't use the word mediocrity as that demeans the early achievement, but as it wont fit and I don't see a queue the club have again put the proverbial foot in the mouth PR again, any thoughts? 

[RedJ]

Thing is.. we weren't even second best... in a race we should've won at a canter.

[andy didcott]

Long shot I know, but if somebody could get hold of one of this for me in xl size I would be very grateful, handsome reward given off course.

[RedJ]

Spit or swallow?

[andy didcott]

 Ha!ha!.
No yer dirty git, cash.

[Glyn_Wigley]

It smacks of them having some of these shirts before everything went flat, and that this was the best way to get rid of them.   

[Mustapha-Dump]

Yes, anyone would think they were produced weeks ago for the players to parade around in after the whistle at Hartlepool and then there wasn't any call for them, so they've made best of bad and decided to sell them as exclusive

[drfchound]

It smacks of them having some of these shirts before everything went flat, and that this was the best way to get rid of them.   

Glyn, Dickos doesn't think that the season went flat because we had already won promotion.

[One_Matty_Lucas]

Thing is.. we weren't even second best... in a race we should've won at a canter.

Finished third in a one horse race.....

[GazLaz]

Thing is.. we weren't even second best... in a race we should've won at a canter.

Finished third in a one horse race.....

For the vast majority of the season we were the clear best side. People seem to prefer to remember the last six games rather than the proceeding 40 though.

[RoversAlias]

Thing is.. we weren't even second best... in a race we should've won at a canter.

Finished third in a one horse race.....

For the vast majority of the season we were the clear best side. People seem to prefer to remember the last six games rather than the proceeding 40 though.

That's because many of our fans have this odd desire to find misery and negativity in everything. Ironically, many seem to not be happy unless they have something to be sad about.

[idler]

I'm sure that I am happier at coming third than Bill Shankley, Matt Busby, Alex Ferguson or Brian Clough would have been.
We blew the main prize when we almost had both hands on it. Being disappointed is only natural for any fan. I've seen a lot of promotions in my time but however you look at it this one seemed the least pleasurable JMHO of course.

[RedJ]

Thing is.. we weren't even second best... in a race we should've won at a canter.

Finished third in a one horse race.....

For the vast majority of the season we were the clear best side. People seem to prefer to remember the last six games rather than the proceeding 40 though.

Probably because the last six games were what altered the outcome of the season a fair bit. We were nailed on to lift that trophy and something went badly wrong.

[German Rover]

We may have been the best for the majority of the season but at the final whistle of the last game, Portsmouth were better. That's why they have a trophy and we do. It's not wallowing in misery to say in 20 years people won't remember we finished third. But if wed won it they'd remember!

[RoversAlias]

Thing is.. we weren't even second best... in a race we should've won at a canter.

Finished third in a one horse race.....

For the vast majority of the season we were the clear best side. People seem to prefer to remember the last six games rather than the proceeding 40 though.

Probably because the last six games were what altered the outcome of the season a fair bit. We were nailed on to lift that trophy and something went badly wrong.

Let's be fair though, altered a fair bit yet it still ended up being a successful season and that last few games only cost us a trophy. It could have been much worse, what if we'd missed out on promotion? Or do what Leeds did and miss the play offs entirely? It was still mission accomplished come the end of the campaign for Fergie and his team.

[GazLaz]

I'll stick with my 40 game sample size rather than the 6.

[sheffield exile1]

How many losing fa cup semi finalists are remembered? Yes over the season getting us back to where we should have been in the first place because we couldn't halt the tailspin in league 1 is to be aplauded. However I have never felt so flat with a promotion as I did at Hartlepool.

[RedJ]

Thing is.. we weren't even second best... in a race we should've won at a canter.

Finished third in a one horse race.....

For the vast majority of the season we were the clear best side. People seem to prefer to remember the last six games rather than the proceeding 40 though.

Probably because the last six games were what altered the outcome of the season a fair bit. We were nailed on to lift that trophy and something went badly wrong.

Let's be fair though, altered a fair bit yet it still ended up being a successful season and that last few games only cost us a trophy. It could have been much worse, what if we'd missed out on promotion? Or do what Leeds did and miss the play offs entirely? It was still mission accomplished come the end of the campaign for Fergie and his team.

Are we ignoring the fact that he publicly stated it was one of his goals to win the title?

[RoversAlias]

How many losing fa cup semi finalists are remembered? Yes over the season getting us back to where we should have been in the first place because we couldn't halt the tailspin in league 1 is to be aplauded. However I have never felt so flat with a promotion as I did at Hartlepool.

Not a fair comparison in my opinion. A losing Cup semi-finalist has no achievement to show from that, whereas we earned promotion and are now in a higher division. Apples and oranges.

RedJ - Nope, not ignoring that at all but he didn't say "we'll win the title or else it's a colossal failure". The pre-season aim was to do everything we could to get out of this league, and we did exactly that. In fact we did it with relati e ease and were promoted with nearly a month left of the season.

Of 24 teams competing this season, we did categorically better than 20 of them. How is that a bad thing? Perspective is sorely lacking from sections of our fanbase.

[RedJ]

Nobody's said that it was a bad thing. What people are saying is a bad thing is having 9 digits on the trophy and somehow f**king it up. In the context of what we wanted to do at the start of the season, no it isn't a "colossal failure" as you put it. But from the position we were in, something clearly went badly wrong.

[idler]

We employ professional footballers. Those performances in the last five games weren't too professional.
Hartlepool finished bottom after 46 games and we couldn't beat them despite being in the lead with only 20 minutes to go.
Well done for winning promotion but look how Louis Smith reacted when the gold was snatched from him.
I would have been gutted and annoyed if I had played in our last five games.
You go in a pub and your mate buys you a half, great, but if you were expecting a pint a bit of a letdown. 😉

[RoversAlias]

Nobody's said that it was a bad thing. What people are saying is a bad thing is having 9 digits on the trophy and somehow f**king it up. In the context of what we wanted to do at the start of the season, no it isn't a "colossal failure" as you put it. But from the position we were in, something clearly went badly wrong.

Yes, something that Fergie has already stated he is addressing and which is perfectly understandable. I think the last month on this board has been really tedious (more so than usual) because some people just can't seem to let it go that we blew the title. Like I said above, if we had missed promotion then fair enough, talk about it until the cows come home, but we went up, we're looking ahead to a new season and I just wish everyone would let it lie now. It's boring me almost to tears and it just smacks of the typical pessimistic attitude of a section of the Rovers fanbase.

[RedJ]

Maybe stop trying to argue that what happened is absolutely okay then.

[drfchound]