Optimism out of despair

[TommyC]

As I posted on another thread, i've neglected my Rovers supporting duties (in person) for a good few years now. However, this run of ours has ignited something in me that I haven't felt in many years and i'm starting to feel a sense of deja vu. I properly started going to the Rovers as a teenager during the very first Conference season in 98/99 and for the next decade I was a season ticket holder and semi-regular away supporter. Despite our ongoing success in the 2010s, life got in the way and I gradually lost the bug to go to a game. A move away from Doncaster a few years ago effectively brought the curtain down on attending games with any regularity and i've become an armchair fan. I shall however be there this weekend and i hope it's going to reignite my passion to get to the games.

The sense of deja vu comes from the fact that this run of form has the feel of that 98/99 period that first piqued my interest 25 years ago, in particular the high upon which we finished that season with the Endsleigh Trophy win at a packed Belle Vue on a lovely warm evening. The town turned out to show the owners that the support was there if the team could deliver on the pitch and it was a wonderful moment of catharsis after the bleak years that had gone before and we ended the season on a massive high. The run up to this weekend's game makes me feel like Doncaster v Farnborough did back in 1998 and the response of the fans in packing out the ground to round off the season is certainly comparable.  Lets hope we can deliver a similar result.

Whilst our decline over the last few years pales into insignificance in comparison to the events that preceded 98/99, it nevertheless just goes to prove that the good times are so much better when you've been through the lean times too.

[turnbull for england]

It's a great point, I think the Farnborough game has become overlooked given the highlights to follow but it really did feel like we were back that night , with a big crowd and success returning gave us something to hold onto after the leanest of times

[Lifelong supporter]

I agree about the Farnborough game and I thought Peter Catt summed it up really well about halfway down in a piece he wrote about that period.
Here's the link...

https://www.doncasterfreepress.co.uk/sport/football/doncaster-rovers-stunning-rise-from-the-lowest-of-lows-revisiting-the-catt-chronicles-pt4-2531229

[RedRover]

I remember it well, how could I not, it was our first taste of anything like success and cause for optimism since my dad started taking me to games in late 92. The fullest I'd ever seen Belle Vue up to that point too perhaps with the exception of a game I can recall in the mid 90's where PNE seemed to have as many fans in the ground as we did!