1985

[Colin C No.3]

I went with my brother. Unfortunately his boss (an Everton supporter) thought he would treat my brother & me & ‘surprised’ our kid with two tickets in the Everton Main Stand!

Of course, we wanted to be behind the goal with what turned out to be 10,000 Rovers supporters!

I have found the programme. It lists the Rovers team as Denis Peacock, Billy Russell, Steve Lister, Ian Snodin, Andy Kowalski, Glen Humphries, John Buckley, Colin Douglas, Dave Harle, Glynn Snodin & Aiden Butterworth but I’m sure Butterworth was injured for that game but as the programme doesn’t name subs I can’t for the life of me think who made up Rovers XI.

Bremner played Snodin in a defensive midfield role & he looked every bit the part every time he got the ball.

The Everton team (who went on to lose 1-0 in the final to Man Utd) was Neville Southall, Derek Mountfield (ex Liverpool), Kevin Ratcliffe (capt), Gary Stevens, Pat Van den Hawe, Paul Bracewell, Peter Reid, Kevin Sheedy, Trevor Steven, Andy Gray & Graeme Sharp. Howard Kendall was manager.

I remember as the names of the players were read out & Kowalski was announced, a scouser sat behind said “Wasn’t he the captain of that sub on ‘Voyage to the bottom of the Sea?”.

Aren’t they a witty bunch?!

We were 2-0 by half time courtesy of goals from Trevor Steven & I think his namesake Gary Stevens.

You feared the worst at every set piece with Gray & Sharp up front.

We made a good fist of it from what I remember without ever really threatening ‘Big Nev’.

[drfchound]

Colin, I played against Andy Kowalski four weeks ago.
He is still in good shape and is still a very good player.
Walking Football of course but you never lose your love of the game.
He plays for Mansfield now.

[Jimmydee]

I’m sure that we went on a Leon’s coach, I was also a striking miner at the time, a couple of older guys from our local club chipped in and paid for me to go.

[Drover]

This is a link to the thread of the birthday card with Rovers players signatures,think it was 1981-82 a few years before Everton/Goodison cup game.
https://www.drfc-vsc.co.uk/index.php?topic=244950.msg419842#msg419842

Going to have a look for the picture now.

Damn,just spent a few hours going through a fair bit of memorabilia in my storage boxes etc and  the only piece I have not been able to find is the copy of the Doncaster Star I talk about,boy I have been perusing through some stuff,some of which I have forgot about,all the programs from the big games,including one of the JPT final that is autographed by all the players that was on the open day event in pre-season just after it,got several of the paper publications from the Dave Penney era like "The Rover" 2004 title winning edition,the Star 24 page colour tribute to Doncaster Rovers Champions!Free press Rovers Cardiff special cup final souvenir and a limited edition gold writing on cover of the final whistle/last match at belle vue plus all the usual others from the play off final,Stoke etc,BUT no Star edition just after the Everton game,It may turn up 1 day hopefully.It does exist and someone more savvy might be able to track it down.Do they still have a library of old editions of newspapers that the public can trace like they used to,on microfilm or something they used to do once upon a time?

[Donnyjim]

I was 13 and went on the train with my Dad. I had never experienced a crowd and ground as big as that. Was lucky to be sat in the stand on the side. Our fans were packed in like sardines, I remember the pipe. I remember Dennis Peacock’s drop kicks bending out to a 5’7’’ Aiden Butterworth on the wing. The worst bit I remember was after the game getting charged by the police on horses in Stanley park. Great day out though.

[Colin C No.3]

Colin, I played against Andy Kowalski four weeks ago.
He is still in good shape and is still a very good player.
Walking Football of course but you never lose your love of the game.
He plays for Mansfield now.

That’s fantastic hound!

I’m moving to Bridlington in two weeks & have already made enquires as to whether or not they run such a club. I’ve had positive feedback & so.. ‘the dream goes on!’.

[BillyStubbsTears]

I was at sea so missed it, if I remember rightly didn’t about 50 coaches go over.?

Felt like it. The M62 looked like an evacuation of Donny.

We stopped at the Birch services and you couldn't move for Donny fans.

That terrace that day...with less luck it could easily be Gwladys End, not Leppings Lane that went down in infamy. Most dangerous situation I've ever been in at a match by a million miles. Duggy had a shot early doors and there was a big surge. I'm not small but I got lifted clean off my feet, swept down and across the terrace and could barely breathe until the surge stopped.

Hillsborough was waiting to happen somewhere, sometime to some bunch of poor bas**rds.

[andysly]

I've said this many a time, that day at Everton and another similar experience at Hull, and to a lesser extent a cup match at Norwich were all terrifying looking back, but at the time you just went with it.
Hillsborough was waiting for someone, and the above 3 were just little old Donny, imagine the crushes involving fans of bigger clubs at away games, probably on a fortnightly basis.

[Donnywolf]

Great set of reflections so far

My 4 stand outs from the day

The Coach I was on getting pelted with bricks going in towards Ground , less so on way out

The extreme crush behind the goal was as bad as people recall it here

A Rovers fan 20 ish , drunk , trying to get into a fight inside Ground , asking any Rovers fans to "hit me , come on hit me" .

Last but deffo not least the performance of one Ian Snodin best Rovers player by a mile that day

[drfchound]

Colin, I played against Andy Kowalski four weeks ago.
He is still in good shape and is still a very good player.
Walking Football of course but you never lose your love of the game.
He plays for Mansfield now.

That’s fantastic hound!

I’m moving to Bridlington in two weeks & have already made enquires as to whether or not they run such a club. I’ve had positive feedback & so.. ‘the dream goes on!’.

If they don’t then just up the road in Hornsea they do have good WF club.
If Brid have one then PM me and we could probably arrange to play a friendly match with you.

[idler]

Did you know Rob Bennett hound? He died earlier this year and played walking football for some years. A Balby lad originally and I went right through infants to seniors with him.

[Bentley Bullet]

The rake of the stand was such that you had to stand up to see the goal nearest to you.

I was almost crushed by a police horse coming out of Goodison park that day, and the copper steering it knew exactly what he was doing. I remember rolling round in a gap of about 6" between said horse and a wall. The final insult was when it slapped me across the gob with its tail as it moved on in front. well, at least I hope it was its tail.

[drfchound]

Did you know Rob Bennett hound? He died earlier this year and played walking football for some years. A Balby lad originally and I went right through infants to seniors with him.

Yes idler, I did know him.  It was very sad to see his decline over a fairly short period of time.

[roversdude]

Horses were nasty bstards on the picket line too

[idler]

Did you know Rob Bennett hound? He died earlier this year and played walking football for some years. A Balby lad originally and I went right through infants to seniors with him.

Yes idler, I did know him.  It was very sad to see his decline over a fairly short period of time.

He never changed much over the years at all. Very rarely lost his temper. I was at Balby Infants, Balby Juniors and then Oswin Avenue with him. Always in the same class. I used to copy his maths homework. We played in the same Sunday league team as well until I did my knee in. Were you at his funeral? I came over for it and was talking to Tony Winstanley and another couple of WF lads after.

[drfchound]

Did you know Rob Bennett hound? He died earlier this year and played walking football for some years. A Balby lad originally and I went right through infants to seniors with him.

Yes idler, I did know him.  It was very sad to see his decline over a fairly short period of time.

He never changed much over the years at all. Very rarely lost his temper. I was at Balby Infants, Balby Juniors and then Oswin Avenue with him. Always in the same class. I used to copy his maths homework. We played in the same Sunday league team as well until I did my knee in. Were you at his funeral? I came over for it and was talking to Tony Winstanley and another couple of WF lads after.

I wasn’t at the funeral because I was away at the time.
Tony is also a good pal.

[Jimmydee]

The rake of the stand was such that you had to stand up to see the goal nearest to you.

I was almost crushed by a police horse coming out of Goodison park that day, and the copper steering it knew exactly what he was doing. I remember rolling round in a gap of about 6" between said horse and a wall. The final insult was when it slapped me across the gob with its tail as it moved on in front. well, at least I hope it was its tail.

I witnessed a copper on a horse and he guided the horse close to a wall and trapping a rovers fan, the copper gave a slight kick to the horse and it trapped the rovers fan and he fainted because it winded the guy and his mates had to take care of him.

[Bentley Bullet]

The rake of the stand was such that you had to stand up to see the goal nearest to you.

I was almost crushed by a police horse coming out of Goodison park that day, and the copper steering it knew exactly what he was doing. I remember rolling round in a gap of about 6" between said horse and a wall. The final insult was when it slapped me across the gob with its tail as it moved on in front. well, at least I hope it was its tail.

I witnessed a copper on a horse and he guided the horse close to a wall and trapping a rovers fan, the copper gave a slight kick to the horse and it trapped the rovers fan and he fainted because it winded the guy and his mates had to take care of him.

I thought that might have been the same incident involving me, but after taking a few deep breaths to check if I was injured, I was OK. What happened to me was obviously not an isolated incident then.

I do remember thinking after it though that I was glad in a way that my team was a mere third-division club, and that I wasn't sure if I liked the idea of big-time football every week.

[silent majority]

I know I've posted this before but thought it worth sharing again.

If you click on the photo it does show it the right way up! Weird!

[Lifelong supporter]

Might be wrong but I'm not sure Andy Kowalski played in that game.
Wasn't it Jim Dobbin and David Harle in midfield?

[Bentley Bullet]

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/2c/22/4e/2c224eddd32208209ba90d6754954786.jpg