Disillusion

[MR A-Z]

I am very prepared to be shot down and be denounced a poor supporter with things going really well ATM we're second in the league and on paper and agreeing with Flynn we do have the best team in the league, but I'm just growing disillusioned with our team, I haven't looked forward to a game since probably o'driscoll's second season in the championship. I think as a whole we were proud of being a pub team having a laugh, whilst being underestimated by everyone yet achieving immense results playing the good ol' game in the most entertaining fashion. Penney with his brilliant attacking philosophy with fantastic wing backs in marples and Ryan, wingers with coppinger and mcindoe and that cup run (where regretfully I could have run down the clock before chucking the ball back to cygan for a throw in, but I passed it him back after a nasty glare but hey I was only a nipper). O'driscoll's tiki taka with stock pulling the strings, the beautiful build up before woods chipping one over the forest keeper. Maybe it's me falling out of love or needing a break from the game but I just don't feel the magic I used to. Yes the blood, sweat, guts, grit and well not tears as footballers don't shed them like gazza anymore (well maybe if they get fined or dropped) is admirable but I don't feel entertained, the old school approach may be appreciated by others as a breath of fresh air but to me I feel we've lost our identity that we strived for so long to maintain, not lost but just hiding. RTID.

[DonnyBazR0ver]

Glory hunter!

Mr A-Z, this is paradise compared to where we have been. Some pubs had  better facilities!

Your lucky. Our identity used to be a joke club that used to have to apply for re-election alongside clubs that no longer exist!
(Re-election. You might have to look it up but basically it was like the UK competing in the Eurovision song contest!)

No one to put us down for a home win on the pools as we were known as Doncaster Rovers Nil.

Who remembers the FA Cup tie vs Penrith? 892 saw that game and I was f**king 2 of them!!

Lost our identity? Who else remembers our identity??

[Filo]

Penney with his brilliant attacking philosophy with fantastic wing backs in marples and Ryan, wingers with coppinger and mcindoe and that cup run (where regretfully I could have run down the clock before chucking the ball back to cygan for a throw in, but I passed it him back after a nasty glare but hey I was only a nipper).

That`s the problem, you`ve only known the good times, you`ve been spoilt and thats what happens when kids are spoilt, they don`t like it when they can`t have what they want!

[mrfrostsdad]

Truth in this and the replies.
I've been watching Rovers for over forty years and there's been more bad times than good I can tell you!
As long as you keep going and keep supporting them you're entitled to a moan!

[The Red Baron]

I can hardly say I'm disillusioned. After all, at the start of the season I had a nagging fear that this season might turn into a relegation scrap- although I predicted a mid-table finish.

On the other hand, results up to the end of January have put us in a great position to go back up to the Championship, with all that means in terms of extra revenue, public interest etc. If we don't kick on from here then it will go down as a massive missed opportunity- and so reminiscent of seasons past where Rovers have been well placed at the turn of the year and fallen away badly. I keep thinking back to 1990-91, when we went top on Boxing Day yet missed out even on the play-offs- after the wheels came off in spectacular fashion around February time.

For me, the squad needs a bit of freshening up. The change of manager maybe spoiled the chance to do a thorough job of that in January, but we still have the loan market. I'd like to see movement now, rather than waiting till we've dropped out of the top six.

[Filo]

To illustrate how spoilt you`ve been, here`s our league finishing position from the mid 70`s when I started watching up until our return to the FL when I suspect you started watching Rovers

1976-77 8th Div 4
1977-78 12th Div 4
1978-79 22nd Div 4 re-election
1979-80 12th Div 4
1980-81 3rd Div 4 promoted
1981-82 19th Div 3
1982-83 23rd Div 3 relegated
1983-84 2nd Div 4 promoted
1984-85 14th Div 3
1985-86 11th Div 3
1986-87 13th Div 3
1987-88 24th Div 3 relegated
1988-89 23rd Div 4
1989-90  20th Div 4
1990-91 11th Div 4
1991-92 21st Div 4
1992-93 16th Div 3 still 4th tier
1993-94 15th Div 3
1994-95 9th Div 3
1995-96 13th Div 3
1996-97 19th Div 3
1997-98  24th Div 3 relegated to conference
1998 -99 16th conf
1999-00 12th conf
2000-01 9th conf
2001-02 4th conf
2002-03 3rd conf promoted



You`ve never had it so good! so grow some b*llocks and start getting behind your club?

There would n`t be a club if we all chucked to towel in as easy as the spoilt generation do!

[MachoMadness]

I'm lucky in a way that I started watching in the Conference days. It seems like such a distant memory these days that to be considered a top L1/Championship club, and to have it feel like that's where we belong, is quite a remarkable achievement. Surreal how far we've come when you think back. I know we can't always be looking back at those days to excuse everything that goes wrong, though.

Agree with Filo though, this is probably the taste of disappointment you've had as a Rovers fan so you need to suck it up and get behind the team. And to be honest, you should be thankful that the worst disappointment you've had so far in your Rovers fan career is 'only' being 2nd in the 3rd tier.

[nortikorner]

My first experience of Doncaster Rovers was in the early 50's Eddy Mcmoran i have never lost the love of the Rovers.Disillusioned yes but thats the name of the game we always expect more then we are getting but thats life.Todays team is  good in places bad in other areas but to pick on individuals would be wrong its a team game '
Disillusioned yes when they say ive got players lined up  and we cannot get them when we need them

[MrFrost]

My first game was in the late 80s, but ill be honest I don't enjoy it now anywhere near a much a I used to.
Whether its the cost, lack of atmosphere, football as a whole, I don't know. I guess as you get older, other things take priority.

[Alickismyhero]

I am very prepared to be shot down and be denounced a poor supporter with things going really well ATM we're second in the league and on paper and agreeing with Flynn we do have the best team in the league, but I'm just growing disillusioned with our team, I haven't looked forward to a game since probably o'driscoll's second season in the championship. I think as a whole we were proud of being a pub team having a laugh, whilst being underestimated by everyone yet achieving immense results playing the good ol' game in the most entertaining fashion. Penney with his brilliant attacking philosophy with fantastic wing backs in marples and Ryan, wingers with coppinger and mcindoe and that cup run (where regretfully I could have run down the clock before chucking the ball back to cygan for a throw in, but I passed it him back after a nasty glare but hey I was only a nipper). O'driscoll's tiki taka with stock pulling the strings, the beautiful build up before woods chipping one over the forest keeper. Maybe it's me falling out of love or needing a break from the game but I just don't feel the magic I used to. Yes the blood, sweat, guts, grit and well not tears as footballers don't shed them like gazza anymore (well maybe if they get fined or dropped) is admirable but I don't feel entertained, the old school approach may be appreciated by others as a breath of fresh air but to me I feel we've lost our identity that we strived for so long to maintain, not lost but just hiding. RTID.

A-Z,
I know exactly how you feel and I sympathise with your view. My first game was in 1955 when I was hooked and I can also support the views of others when they say you support your club through thick and thin. I think if all supporters are honest they would admit they had periods of doubt over the years as you have right now.
I really do see things improving with BF as the Stevenage game proved, all he needs is time. So stick with it the future is rosy.

[redwine]

Who remembers the FA Cup tie vs Penrith? 892 saw that game and I was f**king 2 of them!!

Was this your first threesome ?

[hoolahoop]

Who remembers the FA Cup tie vs Penrith? 892 saw that game and I was f**king 2 of them!!

Was this your first threesome ?

I thought he had a multi-personality problem
Been supporting the team since '67 and as Filo pointed out earlier watching Rovers is a labour of love and tbf many supporters feel disillusioned/ have other priorities etc from time to time if they were really honest. Supporting out club is hard work at times but worth it.......don't beat yourself about the head fella. Stick around we need you.

[MR A-Z]

It's hardly hard times, we're in a very good position and looking likely to go up so I'm not really a glory supporter and my disappointment isn't with the league were playing in its how we're playing, when Jones put us 1-0 up against Orient I didn't feel elation, I felt boredom if I'm being totally honest. It maybe just football on the whole but I'll finish this season off then decide how I feel in pre-season. Probably eat my words and be back next year.

[hoolahoop]

It's hardly hard times, we're in a very good position and looking likely to go up so I'm not really a glory supporter and my disappointment isn't with the league were playing in its how we're playing, when Jones put us 1-0 up against Orient I didn't feel elation, I felt boredom if I'm being totally honest. It maybe just football on the whole but I'll finish this season off then decide how I feel in pre-season. Probably eat my words and be back next year.

True I'm sure many of us are unhappy with quite a few performances this season (especially the last 3!). However this is not the Championship and I'm not sure we can expect the same level of performance , however as stated earlier they are not as good as they should be of late.
Like any sport it is difficult to maintain the high standards that you have come to expect over the last decade due to changes in the financial situation.
At least we have a good stadium, financial set-up, league position,  and stability . I would expect things to pick up from here .
Many if not all of these conditions have not been in place in the past and I hope you stick with it despite how you have been spoiled in the past...........it will be worth it
Finally at least Bournemouth are losing that should make you feel a tad better

[BobG]

I think I get what Mr A-Z means.  Hope so anyway! Football is different now. I don't mean the Rovers. I mean footy. I used to watch MoTD most weeks. I used to read the reports of all sorts of games. I knew who'd won and who'd lost each weekend.

I haven't watched MoTD in about 5 years now. I've got a mate who supports a PL team. He goes on and on about them. And I simply switch off. I'm plain not interested any more. And while I still come on here, and I still go see Rovers when I can, the fact that I can't do that very often nowadays don't bother me on little bit. I'm plain not that fussed.

I think football and Murdoch have already killed the goose that lays the eggs. It's just a question of time now. Ask around. Ask all those people who used to be interested. Why are they not so interested now?

I'm bored with the way Rovers play. I'm really not fussed if we go up or not. The fact of the matter is I support a team. I don't support a team provided it's in this or that division. I'd rather watch a game that's pleasing on the eye, shows some skilful footy occasionally and that makes me feel good about my team. And this team do none of those things for me. Worse, despite the admirable IRWT, I don't feel part of footy, in the wider sense, any longer. It divorced itself from people like me 15 years back. And the chickens that brings in its wake look more and more like they're going to be bloody big ones.

So I'm with Mr A-Z

BobG

PS and before anyone accuses me of being a Johnny Come Lately, I'm not. Plenty of folk on here know how many decades I've spent supporting the shite we've usually had.

[Mr1Croft]

I feel it myself sometimes too, when I'm watching a match and despite us winning I just don't feel that magic anymore. At one game this season (may have been Shewsbury) I hoped the opposition would score just to lighten the match up a little as for some reason it can get pretty boring pretty quickly. But I was there at Tranmere and Stevenage and despite going mental when we scored in the dying moments it doesn't come anywhere near Mansfield or Rochdale.

I haven't watched MOTD all season (or the FLS for that matter). Although I do watch the Bundesliga on any opportunity I can as I believe it is much better than the English game on and off the field.

[hoolahoop]

I think I get what Mr A-Z means.  Hope so anyway! Football is different now. I don't mean the Rovers. I mean footy. I used to watch MoTD most weeks. I used to read the reports of all sorts of games. I knew who'd won and who'd lost each weekend.

I haven't watched MoTD in about 5 years now. I've got a mate who supports a PL team. He goes on and on about them. And I simply switch off. I'm plain not interested any more. And while I still come on here, and I still go see Rovers when I can, the fact that I can't do that very often nowadays don't bother me on little bit. I'm plain not that fussed.

I think football and Murdoch have already killed the goose that lays the eggs. It's just a question of time now. Ask around. Ask all those people who used to be interested. Why are they not so interested now?

I'm bored with the way Rovers play. I'm really not fussed if we go up or not. The fact of the matter is I support a team. I don't support a team provided it's in this or that division. I'd rather watch a game that's pleasing on the eye, shows some skilful footy occasionally and that makes me feel good about my team. And this team do none of those things for me. Worse, despite the admirable IRWT, I don't feel part of footy, in the wider sense, any longer. It divorced itself from people like me 15 years back. And the chickens that brings in its wake look more and more like they're going to be bloody big ones.

So I'm with Mr A-Z

BobG

PS and before anyone accuses me of being a Johnny Come Lately, I'm not. Plenty of folk on here know how many decades I've spent supporting the shite we've usually had.

The paragraph I've highlighted says it all along with the way supporters are treated generally by police, stewards and rules and regulations .

[RoversAlias]

Thankfully I'm not feeling disillusioned or anything like that yet. Every match still has me on tenterhooks, long may that continue.

[MR A-Z]

Finally bobG and mr1croft have come to the rescue and supported my opinion I knew it wasn't just me! Can anyone hand on heart disagree that when Green came from well absolutely nowhere to drive a diving header into the away end against Cambridge as nothing short of magic, McIndoe scoring from his arse in our div 3 days, Wellens' brace against Swansea, being wary of teams like Mansfield and Oxford! Gaz Roberts owning the left side no matter who the opponent were, standing in the Townend and rigoglioso nearly breaking your cranium with a skied effort, Steve Roberts nipping in and intercepting a pass before the midfielder had even seen the strikers run. I feel like now we're a team who goes to grounds expecting the results, I mentioned our identity being in hiding, I didn't explain myself well enough. We were a team who turned up and overachieved, we were fans who went to every game optimistic yet if we lost we knew things could be worse, most teams thought we were lucky but even when we came up against pl teams or players we held our own. Now, teams in our league expect us to come and dominate cos we are a "decent team in this league" but I was more than happy to be a pub team having a laugh, being underestimated yet having that ingenuity to be different, but now I'm bored with the average football league team, I turn up expecting wins, I don't like it I prefer going to enjoy the mighty rovers play. But I believe with Flynn we have the resources to get things back the way they were, but with football on the whole I'm bored.

[MR A-Z]

Also re-reading (if that's a word) I totally agree with MOTD! Sick to death of shearers mumblings and going on about "in my day it wouldn't have been a foul" and "fan'astic finish" as well as the massive orgasmic screaming of pearce or Mowbray at someone getting a corner from a 50/50 tackle. But I watch Monday night football especially when it's a lower league match cos ATM it seems there will soon only be two leagues in England with the money being bandied about, even league one is going stale.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Bloody hell lads!

I've been hearing scare stories for years about oestrogen from the Pill getting into the water supply and shrinking blokes' knackers.

Looks like they were true because I think you lot have lost yours!

Get a grip of yersens. We are currently the best side in Division 3 (in terms of points won per game played). For most of my football-watching life, I would have shot my load to see the Rovers in that position. We have a player in Cotterill who has scored half a dozen of the technically best 20 goals that the Rovers have ever scored. We are just about to go into one of those "rip your entrails out, tie them in knots, pour a bucketful of butterflies in and stuff them back in your quivering carcass" couple of months that make football the finest sport in the world. At the end if that spell, it is highly likely that we will have either won an extremely unlikely promotion, or that we'll be in for the ultimate in gut-churning football in the play-offs.

Get a grip lads. There have rarely been finer times to be a Rovers fan.

As for the pub team thing: it's a self-indulgent, inverted snobbery load of nonsense when we are among the strongest teams in a division. If you only watch football because you want the fairy tale of the weak rabble winning against all odds, you are deluded. It rarely happens. I'm not even sure that it ever happened to us - we like to tell ourselves that we were the pub team who turned up with a bunch of kids dragged off the streets and pissed all over the established order. But we did it through being bankrolled by a very wealthy Chairman and Board who bought us one of the strongest squads in whichever division we happened to be in from 2000-2008.

That's the usual order of things in football. Believe the pub team myth if you must, but for the most part, it IS just a myth.

Right, I'm going to get my rubber boxers on and get to CostCo for a party pack of beta-blockers to get misen ready for the next 15 (or 18) games.

[Alickismyhero]

A-Z,
The article stimulated some really good comments and I come down firmly on the side of BobG. All I will say is that with all the ups and downs and now at 62 I am still a staunch Rovers supporter who has very little interest in the PL. I am not desperate for promotion and would prefer football easy on the eye. I accept I am probably in the minority with that view.

[Sprotyrover]

My concern is the implied lack of 'INTENT' from the club, no strengthening for the last part of this season in January!. I would have expected 2 or three decent signings in the transfer window a bit like we did in the 80's, player's brought in from similar teams but who you knew had been brought in as sound prospects for the league we intended to play in the following season,and lets face it if we do go up there will need to be alot of changes in the playing staff in order for us to' tread water' in the Championship.
My other concern is Flynn 'Laizez Fayre' attitude to our recent form its as though he is expecting our form to continue to' petre out' for a mid table finish, or maybe a little money making flurry in the playoffs!

[nortikorner]

iam now 67 years old  like alickismyhero not interested in the pl .But iam interested in the championship because we should be in that league, Having said that i believe that at the moment i think its a step to far ,We have just been relegated and adjusted the fiances ,now because we are in a position to get automatic promotion   people want to break the bank . My problem is telling the supporters that we will push for promotion and do nothing in fetching players in ( loan or transfers)

[BobG]

Billy. Unusually, I think you're missing the point. I don't care two hoots either way about the pub team thing. I also don't care two hoots about whether Rovers go up, down or sideways. I'm old enough to know everything is transient. And none of it actually maters very much in the scheme of things. It'd be great to watch us win the Euroean Cup. Of course it would. But I don't watch footy, or the Rovers, for that. I watch it to be entertained. I watch the Rovers cos I was born and brought up there. So a partisan point of view is natural. But given that top, bottom or middle don't really float my boat, watching turgid, unthinking footy of the sort we endure now - well what's the point? I'd far rather watch an exciting Brendan, Kitch and Windy forward line lose 3-4 at home again 'cos Brian Taylor & Co were their usual shit selves.

Sky just exacerbates this feeling growing of distance. Super effing Sunday? WTF is all that about? (I know. I know. It's marketing). What it isn't is the hysterical drama that they inflict upon us. And, of course, once that pov gains a hold, then no bloody team dare fail. Hence the obscenities of the PL, carpet baggers and t**t overseas owners with agendas. Football is, actually, a disgrace to mankind these days. Yet that partisanship keeps us all blind to it, what it means, what it says and the utter hypocrisy of how it's governed.

The weltanschaung is changed Billy. Forget Rovers for a second.  Underneath them, it's football I'm talking about.

Cheers

Bobg

[BillyStubbsTears]

Bob

I think we have a subtly different angle on what we want from football.
Me, I'm not averse to being entertained. But it's secondary for me when I go to a football match. What I want is to be enthralled. To have my guts knotted up with the tension of the event. To have the release of tension when you triumph when you thought you wouldn't.

It's probably very Freudian-sexual I guess. It's certainly more visceral than cerebral for me. I'm not a connoisseur who "oohs" and "aaahs" at the subtle intricacies. I want a challenge, risen to, met and overcome by whatever means necessary. And if that means triumphing over adversity, so much the better.

Know which match I've enjoyed most in the past 3 years? The 0-0 at Bramall Lane this season. Going there thinking we were probably mid-table wallahs, playing the likely Champions. Hardly getting a sniff of the ball after the first 20 mins. But holding out with grim determination and superb organisation.

Know why I enjoyed it so much? Because from the first couple if dozen minutes onwards, it looked like we would be overwhelmed. And with every attack repulsed, you just dared to hope that we might even be strong enough to pinch something from the game. And the hope grew, but you knew it was likely to be dashed by one mistake. So the tension was almost unbearable.

And THAT is what I want from football.

Every week is going to be like that from now to May. Even if we are playing turgid shite, the stakes for the season are now so high that the tension will mount in each game the longer it stays level or we lead or trail by one goal. Can we hold on? Can we step it up? If we slip up here, is this terminal?

That is what I want from football.

And that is why I share your revulsion of what had happened at the highest level. That tension has been stripped out for all bar 2 or 3 sides by the imbalance produced by Murdoch's billions. The visceral aspect has been eviscerated, unless you choose to support one of the "Big Three or Four".

It's shit and I care less than shit about it.

But I can still take my visceral pleasure from my own team.

[hoolahoop]

Excellent post Billy.

[Filo]

A masterpiece BST, probably the finest post ever made on this forum!

 

[BobG]

Good word that! 'Visceral'. Yes. Footy should be visceral. I suppose I, very faintly, hinted at it when I said 'partisan'. So after over 40 years why don't I feel viscerally involved any more? I was. For decades.

Cheers

BobG

[hoolahoop]

A masterpiece BST, probably the finest post ever made on this forum!

 

Truly brilliant mind there have been some classics on here.