Saturday 28th April 2012 marks the day the Rovers play Ipswich Town in our last nPower Championship match before our (hopefully short) sabbatical in League One.

The Club and the VSC would love it, just love it (in the style of another Doncastrian son) if we could say goodbye to this Division in the same way we said hello to it at Derby County, some 44 glorious months ago - with colour, passion, deafening support and our heads held high.

This season has been difficult for a number of reasons, but in the words of John Ryan, "Please keep the faith and back the club in every possible way you can", and what better way to answer that rallying call than turning up at the Keepmoat stadium to see the club bow of this Division and maybe, just maybe, show a team finishing this campaign comfortably mid-table a thing or two on the way?

Wear your colours, bring your flags, and cheer the team on to one final victory in the Championship.  Remember, its an early kick off (12:30pm).

Rovers 'til WE die.

Calling all Rovers fans (and their families)!  How would you like to appear in a new Channel 4 documentary series, aimed at exploring the issues facing British families in 2012?  Robin Ockleford, a researcher from TwoFour Media, has contacted the VSC to see if any Rovers supporting families would like to take part.  Robin goes on to say......

We're making a landmark series for Channel 4 about what life is really like for British families in this iconic year.  While the attention of the world is on the Diamond Jubilee, Euro 2012 and the Olympics this summer, most of us will be trying harder and harder to get by.  Against this backdrop we're hoping to tell the stories of inspiring, warm and engaging families - from all areas and backgrounds across the UK, living through these tough economic times. 

 

While we are looking for all types of families from all over the country - we would really like a football mad family from Yorkshire to reflect the fact that this summer is not only a big one for the Olympics and the Queen's Jubilee, but for football as well.

 

We'd like to reflect the range of issues faced by families in 2012 - from redundancy, money worries and the need to find a new job, to fears about your own business and paying your rent or mortgage.  We also hope to talk to people on benefit, to really understand the struggles they face.  And to explore the pressures parents deal with - supporting their children, from new babies arriving home to school leavers and graduates, often struggling to find work. 

 

We'd like to talk to families about different relationship stresses too, perhaps how they cope with divorce, or find out what happens when the in-laws have to move in.  Ultimately, we want this to be a definitive series looking at British family life, celebrating their resourcefulness, strength and even humour as they take on the challenges of this year.

 

We're currently researching the series and would like to speak to as many families as possible about their experiences. Any conversations will be informal and confidential and do not commit people to taking part.  I'd be really grateful if you would let me post on your forums or help me get in touch with Donny fan-families in any other way you might know of.

 

Best wishes,

Robin

 

If you and your family would like to take part in this documentary, please contact Robin directly on 0207 438 1871 or via www.facebook.com/2012Families

A warm welcome from the VSC team to the new, improved, “go-faster” VSC website!

It’s fair to say the old site had “issues” and despite many lost hours of adjustment, reconfiguration and tweaking we were unable to resolve all the problems, so we took the plunge and designed a new site from the ground up.
 
To existing members and users of the VSC site, we’d like to thank you for your patience whilst we tried to fix the old site and develop this new one, and to former users and new users alike we hope you like what we’ve done with the site.  It is a little bit different, but hopefully just familiar enough for you to feel at home.

We’ve also developed a new “mobile version” of the site, which is much more efficient, downloads less data (so is ideal for those with limited mobile data tariffs) and simpler to work on a phone.  Just log on to the normal web address on your smartphone and the website does the rest.

Users of the forum will also notice that all their posts have been migrated across from the old website already (hopefully nothing got lost or broken by the removal men!) so we start where we left off.

You will also be able to see the VSC’s new aims and objectives, rules and policies on the site, and there will undoubtedly be exciting times ahead for the Supporters Trust movement.  Maybe even some of you reading this now would like to become involved and join the Directors of the VSC in making a difference to our club.  Watch this space over the coming weeks for more on this.

Dive on in, and let’s give the team our full support for the run in to the season.

The VSC Directors

PS - there are a few new features in this forum, including buddy/ignored user management and easier social media integration.  We also have plans to "drip release" more features over the coming weeks!

Wednesday 29th February saw the Viking Supporters Co-operative launch it's first Community Project in partnership with Doncaster Rovers Community Foundation, Age UK and Active Doncaster. The 'Leap into Life' scheme is aimed at men over the age of 50, and promotes health and wellbeing.  During the launch event 5 lucky Rovers fans were picked to go up against 5 Brighton fans in a 'beat the pro' challenge and watch the match in one of the VSC Hospitality Boxes.

This is the first of a number of Community activities the VSC is promoting, which link in with the community-led objectives in the VSC's recently published aims.

Photo above: Leap into Life!  Supporters from the Rovers and Brighton and Hove Albion ahead of the penalty shoot-out.