Belle Vue picture

[ravenrover]

Came across this on TwitterX
Anyone recognise anybody?

[roversdude]

Nope I was a Pop sider

[BobG]

The two on the left look a bit like Dutch Uncle and I. Unlikely though. I don't remember ever going to a match with him!

BobG

[Bentley Bullet]

I'm there, probably!

[BobG]

Good eyesight there BB!

BobG

[Reg of the Rovers]

I started as a main-stander when my Dad first took me, to keep away from the riff-raff I think! We stood near the brick dug outs, near these two old boys who we called Statler and Waldorf who used to have us in stitches every week, and also near the knitted effigies of the team on the runout from the tunnels!

I moved to popside in my later teens when I wanted to be part of the riff-raff, and stayed there until the end! On the quieter times we used to swap halves at half time so we could be closer to our attacking. The good old days for sure.

[Bentley Bullet]

Good eyesight there BB!

BobG

Well, I cheated really. I recognised the bloke with the glasses on who always stood next to me.

[drfchound]

Good eyesight there BB!

BobG

Well, I cheated really. I recognised the bloke with the glasses on who was stood next to me.

I noticed that the lads behind you are wearing bell bottom jeans.
They are coming back into fashion now.

[Donnywolf]

I'm there, probably!

thought that was you in the White BB till I noticed the man was putting his hand in his pocket 

[roversdude]

To unwrap a sweet DW

[Donnywolf]

Ah yes that would explain the mystery !

[IDM]

Trying to date this - late 70s early 80s.?

If it’s the latter I’ll probably be there too.  If we got there early enough I’d have a pitch side spot about level with the edge of the penalty area..  depending on which way we were playing, obviously..

That day we beat Reading 7-5, I got in via the turnstile closest to the Rosso end, and by the time I’d reached the town end penalty area it was already 2-1.!!

[Bentley Bullet]

To unwrap a sweet DW

I thought it was Wolfie peeling an orange.

[roversdude]

When was the cowshed knocked down

[Bentley Bullet]

Pictures are often dated by the attire of the people in them. I recall a photo once taken outside Belle Vue of a bloke wearing Plus Fours, which was estimated to have been taken around 1880 based on the fashion of that time.

.... Turned out it was a pic of Scawsby Steve taken by his mate in 1997.

[Bentley Bullet]

When was the cowshed knocked down

It was knocked down shortly after the Bradford City fire, because of new wooden build restrictions. The Valley Parade fire was in 1985, so I estimate 1986.

[Usher wide.]

Has to be a pre-season friendly surely, whatever decade/year.

[ForsolongaRover]

I’ve just read the latest post suggesting a pre-season friendly which I would have some doubt about because the spectators are not dressed as you would expect in the middle of summer.

One thing is very obvious - with the corners of the ground so sparsely populated, it was a very small crowd, so it must have been when we were going through hard times. If the date estimate is right I was living back Doncaster from 79-82 before I left again and used to stand on the on the terrace side of the main stand side and it was almost always fuller in that area than the picture shows. Between 79 and 82, we were 12th in D4 in 1979/80 and promoted in 1980/81. In the next year we struggled and in the year after that we were relegated back to D4. So it could have been 81/82 or 82/83.

We were promoted again in 83/84 and did quite well in the following year, perhaps that makes 1981-83 the likely period.

[Lesonthewest]

I might be way off it here but is the number 7 not Ian Miller.

[Pancho Regan]

Replica shirts weren't a big thing back then!

[goalkick]

Could be a reserve game, don’t seem to be many there.

[RoverinLincs]

The molten lava squashed sausage rolls out of that little food hut near the cowshed were to this day, the best match day sausage roll I’ve ever had! Lathered in red sauce too

[Silkscarf]

I might be way off it here but is the number 7 not Ian Miller.

Looks to me like same colour shorts as shirt on the number 7. So maybe not Ian Miller as 75-76 was last season for a while with red shorts. Judging by the trousers, haircuts and Gola trainers I’d say early 80s post-punk/new wave rather than long haired mid70s. Not many leaves on trees, coats on, so maybe about October? Thin crowd as another season already seemed pointless!

Could the blurry figures by the touchline be us (maybe the CIL hoops or white shirts) and the other players are the away side (in blue or green probably).

Cowshed probably still there. Photo taken from near the entrance at the racecourse end of it. 50p transfer or zero later on.

[Lesonthewest]

Replica shirts weren't a big thing back then!

Did we have numbers on the back of shirts back then.
.

[drfchound]

Replica shirts weren't a big thing back then!

Did we have numbers on the back of shirts back then.
.

Of course.

[ravenrover]

Just to the right of there is where I met my wife to be in about 1971

[Lesonthewest]

Replica shirts weren't a big thing back then!

Did we have numbers on the back of shirts back then.
.

Of course.

Ah, thought so.

[BobG]

Somebody down front is really legging it. Wonder why...?

I doubt very much this is a reserve game. Attendances at those hardly ever got above a couple of hundred. Surely there's more than that there in the pic?

BobG

[Lesonthewest]

Looks like the tea bar is closed too.

[Bentley Bullet]

It's the early 1980's......
https://www.doncasterfreepress.co.uk/news/picture-gallery-glory-days-of-doncaster-rovers-lost-belle-vue-ground-new-unseen-photos-474185