Poor relations

[Branton Rover]

We are the biggest town now city in South Yorkshire yet others Barnsley & Rotherham are streets ahead of us & from 2008-2014 that wasn’t the case we were regional top dogs Sheffield apart. I know these halcyon days are now long gone. But after listening to what Gavin said at meet the owners evening - he started that the self financing model could only work in League One & if the club wish to return to that model, monies will need to be spent to get us out of the basement division.

[keith79]

I fear it will get worse before it gets better. These owners, imo have lost interest. They are just keeping it ticking over until new owners arrive.

[Bentley Bullet]

Weren't we at one point regional top dogs including the Sheffield clubs?

I remember the days when Gavin Baldwin and his colleagues would frequent the Belle Vue Bar pre-matches. It seems like they are distancing themselves from the supporters these days.

[Donny Exile in York]

Thats what gets me? We should not be the poor relations to Rotherham or Barnsley, no matter what history says.. size of place, location etc. No way should we be the poor cousins

[dickos1]

Rotherham maybe similar but barnsley are a much bigger club than us

[tyke1962]

We are the biggest town now city in South Yorkshire yet others Barnsley & Rotherham are streets ahead of us & from 2008-2014 that wasn’t the case we were regional top dogs Sheffield apart. I know these halcyon days are now long gone. But after listening to what Gavin said at meet the owners evening - he started that the self financing model could only work in League One & if the club wish to return to that model, monies will need to be spent to get us out of the basement division.

It's still mathematically possible that Rotherham , ourselves and Rovers could all be in league one next season .

At this moment in time both Rotherham and ourselves could be considered high end league one club's with a few championship season's thrown in .

That's not streets away , the disparity at the moment  isn't best judged by comparison with The Millers and ourselves .

We've both got a knack at the moment in league one of getting the maximum bang for the buck .

The actual disparity is actually between Rovers and competing at the top end of league one with the huge clubs who drop out of the championship .

Both Rotherham and ourselves keep in the game because we bounce more or less straight back to the championship give or take .

We both only have to fail once or twice consecutively and it's a different game altogether .

The standard required to bounce back is getting harder as each season goes by .

28 points out of the last 30 and just two defeats since early October and still fourth .

[Bentley Bullet]

I've toyed with the idea that Doncaster offers more distractions sportswise than the rest of the South Yorkshire clubs, what with an International racecourse, Rugby teams of both variations, Ladies' football team etc.

[roversdude]

It’s all cyclical though isn’t it

[Branton Rover]

I don’t mind so much playing second fiddle to Barnsley they’ve always been ahead of us historically it’s the bloody Millers I can’t stand doing better than us. We’re a city in our own right with a grade 1 racecourse, Mansion House etc & we should at least be on parity with they’re a small town conjoined to Sheffield with nothing going for them culturally or sporting wise.

[Bentley Bullet]

And yet, Rovers have won more games than Barnsley in head to heads!

[Branton Red]

Rotherham maybe similar but barnsley are a much bigger club than us

I'd delete the word "much" from that statement.

Doncaster is a bigger place than Barnsley.

But Barnsley FC has consistently over several decades had better owners who have invested more in the team and facilities. Belle Vue was left to rot whilst Oakwell was built up to a decent Level 2 standard stadium.

Barnsley have therefore consistently done better on the field, attracted and sustained more fans, and therefore the people in Barnsley as a whole (though it's not without its Leeds/Sheffield traitors) have more of an affinity with their football club than the people of Doncaster do with theirs.

Sadly.

[Branton Red]

I don’t mind so much playing second fiddle to Barnsley they’ve always been ahead of us historically it’s the bloody Millers I can’t stand doing better than us. We’re a city in our own right with a grade 1 racecourse, Mansion House etc & we should at least be on parity with they’re a small town conjoined to Sheffield with nothing going for them culturally or sporting wise.

Rotherham are where we were 15 years ago with a 'good' owner. Local, rich, a genuine fan whose ambitious for his team and has leadership and drive.

Things won't last the way they are for them currently for long - just as they didn't with us :-(

We'll be playing them regularly in bottom half League 1/League 2 fixtures soon enough.

[tyke1962]

Rotherham maybe similar but barnsley are a much bigger club than us

I'd delete the word "much" from that statement.

Doncaster is a bigger place than Barnsley.

But Barnsley FC has consistently over several decades had better owners who have invested more in the team and facilities. Belle Vue was left to rot whilst Oakwell was built up to a decent Level 2 standard stadium.

Barnsley have therefore consistently done better on the field, attracted and sustained more fans, and therefore the people in Barnsley as a whole (though it's not without its Leeds/Sheffield traitors) have more of an affinity with their football club than the people of Doncaster do with theirs.

Sadly.

I think the major difference between ourselves and Rovers is that the people of Barnsley do back the club in decent numbers given it's size of population .

They back the club especially well when we are doing well , Tuesday night's game v S6 is almost sold out despite the Sky Cameras in attendance .

Given the size of the Doncaster population and especially during the Ryan era when you climbed the leagues to the championship playing some very good football the attendances were probably a little underwhelming .

Different times I admit but our journey from the fourth division to the old second division saw us averaging almost 18k in that first season in the second division in 1981 .

[roversdude]

The problem is Tyke our fans are so fickle - prime example yesterday when we equalised Danny Schofield knew what we want, cue second half and it ranged from the football being boring (can’t argue with that at the moment) to get out of the club. Granted there hasn’t been too many highs recently but when you support a club you have to realise there will more lows than highs

[Sprotyrover]

This really Grates me 5 blokes in Sainsbury's on about going to the match....chuffing Barnsley fans.we are victims of our serial under achievement.
Our Chairman can't run the club he is not much of a business man either, since he left the Golden goose' that thrived off Local council house building contracts he has not done much.