Attendances in my first season

[graingrover]

I have hit 80 yrs of age and am embarking on my 70th season  as a Rovers  supporter ( now  every game home and away on I follow from abroad ).
I thought you might smile at these 70 year old statistics which include our friendly matches one infront of 15,000.
I take the opportunity of explaining why I often irritate you all by wearing my rose tinted glasses on threads ..It is because as the years roll by I tend to take a helicopter view of life in general and fight to be positive especially when adversity strikes .
I have to use three separate posts to show the photos .

[graingrover]

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[graingrover]

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[DonnyBiz]

Great to see. Thanks for posting these. Here's to many, many more years.

[Campsall rover]

The photo is upside down graingerover.
If I turn my I pad round it stays that way.

Fantastic gates in the 50’s weren’t they. 
Biggest for me was my 1st season living in Doncaster.
Nov 1975 v Hull City in the League Cup 20.200 or there abouts
I was stood up at the Town End terracing. Like sardines in a can.

How on earth did they get 37.000 in that place also against Hull City?

[Upton Rover]

Great to see, very poor 2nd half to the season that year

[Sprotyrover]

Is it true that every time we sold a player, the Directors all bought themselves a new Car, that’s what my Step Dad said about our decline?

[Wokingviking]

Looks like Lawlor used to go up for the corners in those days, maybe that’s what GMc wants from him!

Happy Birthday Brian!

[scawsby steve]

Happy birthday, Brian. I started a bit after you, when Alick and Gregg joined the fray.

Same outcome though, brilliant first half to the season, massive slump in the second half.

[Silkscarf]

I raise my glass to you tonight Grainge! You post some lovely things, please carry on.

You’re obviously just a glory-seeking bandwagon-jumper though, who only follows Rovers because of when they were massive and successful.

[RoversInSpain]

Wow! 70 years of support, I take my red and white hooped hat off to you! Happy 80th young man.
Now, what are the chances of season 23/24 being up there with some of the best you’ve seen?
Here’s hoping eh….
Thanks for the stats, 29,000 v Rotherham and barely half that v Leeds. Amazing.

[graingrover]

Thanks for those kind remarks .I left U.K. in the late 1960´s to work for a British Insurer on the continent and my career took me to Barcelona , Milan , Amsterdam , and Brussels .I remained firmly attached to Rovers throughout the years .Paul Mayfield would send me newspaper cuttings before the days of the internet and now of course expats like me can watch every game on I follow from Belgium .Bert Tindill is my favourite from the early years and my favourite manager was Billy Bremner .We will do very well under Grant and success could swell the crowds to six figures again next season .

[graingrover]

In those days the club ran four teams, the Reserves played in the Midlands League ( 46 games ), the A team was U 21s and played in the Yorkshire League and the Under 18s played in the Northern Intermediate League.I played for them for two seasons 1956-57 and 1957-58. In that team, we had the best of the Doncaster boys team that won the English Schools shield at Belle Vue in front of 14000 attendance!

[graingrover]

And finally from me on this outing back to my good old days here is MY team . The only living survivor is full back Brian Makepeace who was a guest of honour at a match last season.

[DonnyBiz]

Thank you again for taking the time to share. It's before my time, but always interesting to see. I hope you enjoyed your birthday.

[Nudga]

Love stuff like this thank you Brian. I showed my boys this and they were gobsmacked that we had an attendance of 29,000 against Rotherham.
Really sad that we missed out on that potential at the time.

[idler]

In those days the club ran four teams, the Reserves played in the Midlands League ( 46 games ), the A team was U 21s and played in the Yorkshire League and the Under 18s played in the Northern Intermediate League.I played for them for two seasons 1956-57 and 1957-58. In that team, we had the best of the Doncaster boys team that won the English Schools shield at Belle Vue in front of 14000 attendance!

I was at that cup final and have the programme somewhere. My dad wouldn’t let me go to Rovers games because of the big crowds. I did go to schoolboy games there though. I remember seeing a North v South boys game there as well. Finally in August 1958 I saw my first league game. A 4-1 win against Stockport County in the newly formed Third Division. I was hooked then but we were relegated at the end of the season. Some hard days followed until Alick came back.