1975/76 part two

[bradford exile]

With the victory over Hull City still fresh in their minds Doncaster and their followers waited with baited breath for the draw for round five, the Quarter finals of the competition.

Rovers had never before reached this stage of the competition and the hope was for a draw against one of the big clubs.

So it was that Rovers were pitted against either West Ham United or Tottenham Hotspurs both of league one. The first game between the two had been drawn so a replay would take place the following week, and it would be Tottenham that won through to give Rovers a mouth watering tie at White Hart Lane.

It threw Doncaster into the limelight for all the right reasons.

Over the past few seasons Rovers had, (apart from the Liverpool cup tie of season 1973/74), been in the spotlight only for their plight in the lower leagues, now it was for much different reasons.

Many interviews were done from the players to the Manager to the Directors.

Peter Cooper of the Mirror waxing lyrical stated that if Rovers ever achieved what Leeds United had achieved there wouldn’t be a ground big enough to hold the crowd.

Gates at Belle Vue had risen from 4,000 to 10,000 for a game against Huddersfield Town and had even hit the 20,000 mark for the victory over Hull City in the League Cup.

The headline read “Small Time Club That’s Started Thinking Big”.

The cup run though had to take second place as Rovers got back to the “nitty gritty” of league football and the visit to Belle Vue of high riding Newport County.

Newport came to Belle Vue with a point’s tally of 21 against Doncaster’s 20 so Rovers knew that two points would see them leapfrog their opponents.

Rovers had the better of the first half although their attacking policy often left them open at the back and Newport’s counter attacking strategy made them a dangerous outfit.
It was Rovers nevertheless that took the lead on 31 minutes, Miller put through by Murrays deft pass scored in of the post.

Newport to their credit carried on playing some attractive and determined football but all to no avail.

At half time Rovers led by 1-0, and no one in the ground could have foreseen the goal feast that would be served up after the break.

Everything happened in an explosive ten minute finale. Firstly O’Callaghan on 81 minutes scored after Kitchen set him up with a pin point pass that gave him the simplest of goals.

In the 83rd and 84th minutes Miller completed his hat trick with two great goals the second of which was a dazzling drive from 35 yards out.

At 4-0 Newport pulled a goal back through Parsons as he ran through to beat the Rovers defence to a long ball and scored from close range.

But it would be Rovers who had the last word as O’Callaghan headed home to complete the scoring.

Doncaster leapfrogged over their opponents in the league and were now in 5th place in the league just 2 points behind Reading in third spot.

Everything at the moment seemed to be revolving around cup competitions and Rovers now found themselves preparing for a game against 3rd division high fliers Bury.

Once again Rovers found themselves in the limelight as they travelled the short distance over the Pennines to Bury’s Gigg Lane ground for the first round proper of the FA Cup.

There was a fair contingent of Rovers fans that followed their team and it helped swell the crowd to 7,094 for the game.

To say that Rovers defence was slipshod was to underestimate how good Bury’s attacking options were. From the first kick Doncaster were on the back foot and how they lasted out till the 18th minute without conceding is anybody’s guess.

Bury’s architect in all this was Williams, everything he did spelled disaster for “Donny” and Anderson said after the game he played exceptionally well.

Williams set up every one of Bury’s goals and had a “stormer” of a match.

Firstly he set up Riley after 18 minutes, then in the 34th minute he crossed for Hamstead to fire home.

As bad as Rovers defence was that afternoon they had a centre half who was determined to make his presence felt and in the 42 minute Uzelac came forward for a corner and headed home a fine goal.

At half time Rovers trailed 2-1 although in truth it should have been a far greater deficit.

One thing that Anderson had instilled into this new look Rovers side was a never say die attitude and it showed in their second half performance in which although still being benevolent in defence they provided a stirling performance which gave the large contingent of their followers plenty to cheer about.

Bury scored again after 59 minutes, again it was a goal set up by Williams when his quick throe in caught Rovers defenders flat footed and Rowlands blasted the ball home from 25 yards out.

But Rovers instilled by Andersons never say never attitude fought back. On 60 minutes Peter Kitchen finally gave up against the groin strain with which he had started the game to be substituted by Reed.

With 78 minutes of the game played Uzelac powered home another Rovers goal and brought the game back to 3-2. It was end to end now and Rovers faithful roared their team on.

It could have gone either way but it was Rowland who in the 90th minute bundled the ball home in a goalmouth melee to send Bury into the next round.

Anderson in his post match interview praised Bury but said his defence had just been too benevolent.

The following week Rovers were back to the nitty gritty of league football and a trip to Exeter City’s St James Park saw them go down to a 1-0 defeat. Caught out in only the 10th minute by a Keith Bowker goal Rovers hit back with 80 minutes of attacking football but were unable to breach Exeter’s defence, in fact only good fortune near the end stopped them from going 2-0 down as their opponents broke away with only Alan Beer for the home side knowing how he missed the opportunity.

The big day was now approaching and the League Cup Quarter Final against Tottenham Hotspurs.

Many headlines were being written such as “Anderson points the way to victory” and “Rovers battle cry is attack”.

One unfortunate player was Ray Ternent the scorer of the goal that put Rovers through to the Quarter Final. His reward for that! A place on the substitute’s bench.

Stan Anderson was quoted as saying “if you don’t kill us of in the first 20 minutes be prepared for a shock”.

Anderson was speaking before the game and he made it clear that despite the glory of the cup the league and promotion to the third division was paramount on his mind, although Rovers were not going to London just for a “night out”

Anderson had interrupted his cup preparations to tie up a deal that brought Middlesborough defenders Peter Creamer and Brian Taylor to Belle Vue.

Both players had been signed by Anderson when he was boss at Middlesborough and both would play a big part for Rovers over the rest of the season.

Much focus was placed on big Brendan O’Callaghan, and he was seen as Rovers main threat to the Spurs defence. The headline read “Bren the goal gunner”
 
25,000 fans were inside White Hart Lane, all urging Tottenham to victory, well that’s a little unfair to the 4,000 or so fans roaring on the Rovers.

21,000 Tottenham fans were silenced after just 7 minutes when Alan Murray scored with a powerful header after Reed and the O’Callaghan had done all the spade work. It was the first goal that Spurs had conceded in the competition.

O’Callaghan and Miller both came close to a second as play swung first one way then the other.

Spurs equalised after 17 minutes when, as Rovers players stood waiting for an offside whistle John Pratt bundled the ball home.

Rovers were not to be denied and to their credit their heads did not go down in fact they went at Spurs to try and regain the lead. It did not come however and it was Spurs who took the lead after Jimmy Neighbour fed John Duncan and the Spurs player made no mistake.

2-1 then and surely it was all over now? No Rovers kept going and it needed a world class save by Pat Jennings in the Spurs goal to deny Chris Balderstone an equaliser.

As the second half got underway Rovers again pushed forward and, after 51 minutes they were rewarded with an equaliser.

O’Callaghan intercepted a bad pass from Willie Young and fired at goal. Jennings couldn’t hold the fierce shot and as the ball spilled away from him Peter Kitchen was on hand to slot the ball home.

Rover’s fans roared the equaliser but seconds later were crestfallen as a back pass from Chappell was way of target and they watched as it trickled over the line to put Spurs back in front.
 
Still Rovers would not give up and still Jennings stood in their way, this time with another world class save to deny- yes Chris Balderstone again.

That seemed to be the point at which Rovers crumbled. Duncan hit a tremendous shot high over Peacock to put Spurs 4-2 up and Martin Chivers the England centre forward scored two goals in quick succession to make it 6-2.

When Stan Brookes unfortunately miss kicked in front of his own goal it was Duncan who got to the ball first to complete his hat trick.

In the end Tottenham ran out easy winners even though the headlines in the London papers the next morning led with headlines “Lucky, Lucky, Spurs”.

The dream was over for another season, but it would be some time before Rovers fans got the chance to dream of victory over one of footballs “Elite”

The news of the signings of Peter Creamer and Brian Taylor for a combined fee of £30,000 brought hope to the fans that perhaps this would be the season that Rovers finally had something to shout about.

As so often seems to happen after a good cup run, League form goes out of the door. So it proved with the Rovers who would only win one game in their next five.

At Belle Vue in front of 7,667 fans, Rovers were beaten 1-0 by a Torquay United team who were battling against a bottom four finish.

Doncaster looked ragged and it seemed as if the midweek defeat had taken a huge toll.

Torquay had much the better of the play and apart from one or two efforts restricted Rovers to long range efforts that were in the most part way of target.

A drab 90 minutes was made even worse when Sandercock popped up in the last minute to deny Rovers even a point.

Rovers only success in this poor period was when they entertained Tranmere Rovers at Belle Vue and ran out winners by 3-0 watched by 5684 fans.

Murray put Rovers ahead after 32 minutes following a right wing cross from Chappell. Half time arrived with Doncaster a goal up, but they were far from convincing and Tranmere had threatened on more than one occasion to put them to the sword.

In the second half Rovers needed goalkeeper Brown to be at his best to deny first Steve Peplow and the Bill Kenny after Tranmere had split open Rovers defence.

Slowly Doncaster regained some sort of control and after 79 minutes Peter Kitchen gave them a little breathing space with a neat flick at the neat post. Two minutes later it was done and dusted as O’Callaghan headed home in style from a Miller cross.