Hello. My name is Steve, and I run Donblog. I sit in the West Stand A block at The Keepmoat Stadium and have been a Rovers addict for over a dozen years.

Memories of the first time I went to watch Rovers are pretty hazy. Nobody took me, I didn’t arrange to meet anyone there, and for the first and only time through choice I stood on the Main Stand terrace. I’m not really sure why I went at all. I can say with certainty that we played Aldershot, and beat them 1-0. I’m pretty sure the two sides were the bottom two in the League at the time, and that it was the 1991/92 season.

I’ve got no idea who scored, or when, or what the goal was like. I suspect I’ve actually forgotten hundreds of goals and events over the years - one of the reasons why I started this site was to hopefully be able to look back on events surrounding the Rovers at certain points in their history, and how I felt about them at the time.

Anyways, soon I was able to attend Belle Vue on a regular basis and became intoxicated in the delights of James Meara’s endearing football limitations, Warren Hackett’s woeful long range shooting, Jamie Lawrence and his spectacular haircuts. And of course, who could forget the kindly Uncle figure of Sammy Chung, always pictured in the programme, with a telephone pressed against his ear, smiling for the camera - doubtless receiving detailed instructions pre-match from Ken RIchardson on how Rovers should approach the game, featuring such tactical gems as “When you get the ball, knock it wide!”

Yes, 1994-95 was my first ‘full’ season as a Rover.

I’m thankful that at the time, Sammy’s smile never once betrayed the truth of the man that was running our football club, so as not to ruin my enjoyment of football as it should be for a young lad - two managers picking their best teams and both going out trying to win the match. I really didn’t have a clue early on but I, and many others who started watching Rovers in the nineties, wouldn’t remain that naive for long. The Ken Richardson era is better documented by people who were much closer to the face of the furness than I.

As years would go by (and pocket money allowed), I would also start to attend away games on a semi regular basis, though I would be forced to persevere for some time until I actually witnessed my first away victory. If memory serves me correctly, the first away day I took in was a trip to Chesterfield on Boxing Day in 1994. Given the result (a 2-0 defeat), the sub-zero temperatures, the abject performance - Micky Norbury was spectacularly shite on this particular run-out - and the fact that, for some reason, we arrived in Chesterfield a little after 12pm, with the whole town completely shut, and had some three hours to wait for kick off, it’s pretty suprising that I had the will to venture out of the relative sanctuary of Belle Vue again. Bizarrely I would reject overtures to go to the likes of Scunthorpe (whom we always seemed to beat) but was all too willing to head over to Lincoln (who we never seemed to beat) to watch us compete against John Becks’ dazzling ariel football masterclass.

My first away win witnessed was probably as late as 1999, at Kettering in the Conference (I await correction on this), where Ian Duerden turned in a goal a couple of minutes from time to send the travelling hordes into a frenzy of fists punching the air and general apeing about on the terrace, including the scaling of a small fence to leap around on the pitch at full-time. Poor Kettering. They probably hadn’t (and haven’t since) seen the like.

My first Rovers hero was Gary Brabin, and first Rovers enemy was Jamie Hewitt, who smugly and somewhat sarcastically told me and my friend it was “nice to be back” as he was helping his Chesterfield side crush us 3-1 at Belle Vue in 1995. We were walking innocently out of the ground along the Pop side wall as he first collected the ball, then mistook some sundry abuse he was apportioned from the Pop as being uttered by us .

I was gobsmacked that an actual professional footballer had spoken to me (of course, it would become a regular occurance in around four or five years when I became old enough to frequent the many fine bars and taverns of this town), and though the friend who was with me - and with whom I’ve since travelled round the country for the past 13 years watching matches with - later embellished the story with a well timed riposte to Hewitt of …

“F*ck off Hewitt! F*cking cheek me off will yer?!”

… the sad truth is we both just went a bit red, bowed our heads and continued on our way towards the exit gates. Not my finest hour.

I work on my websites often and go to the Gym less often. My favourite films are Stand By Me and the first Rocky film, and my favourite foods are Chicken Tikka Madras curry, sugar snap peas and banana milkshakes (historically, I’ve always been a Yazoo man but Frijj thick shakes have confused everything …)

I don’t have any pets, though I can imagine owning a cat called O’Driscoll in the future. The first thing I ever printed from a computer (the printer was a present on Christmas Day 1994) was a Rovers team line-up, and I used to while away many a Summer hour reading the back page of the Doncaster Star to find out which players the team had been linked with, then sprint home to write down what the team would line up like presuming we signed these new players (the Newsagent probably got annoyed that I didn’t tend to buy the paper, but he never let on). I suppose indirectly this kind of stuff lead me to where I am now, writing a website dedicated to Doncaster Rovers.

Anyhow, that’s me. Thanks for stopping by etc, we really must do this again some time. There’s a cool feelgood style music video below, that I could probably attribute to Rovers recent metioric rise up the Football Ladder if I could be arsed, but it’s simply a great tune, and I want it on my page. Enjoy.

You might want to read my Rovers Blog and leave some witty comments therein, look at my Rovers Photos or Contact Me. I’ll leave it up to you.