Well, I'm pleased to announce finally of a club with a new ground that have got it right. Yes, there was parking at Donnie. Loads and loads of it. A dedicated club car park which anyone could park in. A large retail centre next door with lots of parking which didn't discriminate against football fans and was free! There were also various industrial estate parking places too. I got there far too early but even if I'd left it late there were enough spaces to cater for all of us. Heaven.
Not only had they provided places to park, but the ground is built next to a nice park as well. This gives the fan who needs something to do having consumed a KFC the chance to walk it off round a lake and up and down some hills whilst observing the various pre-match rituals of the locals. Before I arrived I had visions of Doncaster being a bit grim and industrial but it wasn't like that at all. It was great. The best new ground I've been to. They've even copied the Ipswich idea of getting people to play the game beforehand as there were several five a side pitches nearby along with an athletics track.Inside the food outlets were spacious and all manned, something that should but never does happen in the Rous Stand. The toilets were cavernous with no usual half time queue. The stewards were polite and helpful and even allowed you to sit anywhere within the stand we were allocated. These all sound like such small insignifanct things but they make a huge difference to a fans experience. Especaily the stewarding. If the stewards are petty, it only increases the likelihood of trouble. I don't mean trouble in a throw back to the 80's type way but unnecessary rule enforcing just leads to unpleasantness which usually results in the stewards enforcing their authority and throwing people out. Yesterday they were friendly and treated us like human beings and we responded accordingly. If only all clubs could be like Donnie.
Another crucial thing they'd got right was building a stadium that corresponds to the average amount of fans. Coventry especially could learn that there really is no point in building a ground that will cope well when you're playing Man Utd when in reality you going to be facing Sheffield United far more regularly. All the stands were well populated, the ground was compact and I felt close to the pitch even in the back row yet the leg room was spacious.
On the pitch things were obviously good too although I still would've said all that even if we'd lost 4-0. Donnie started more threateningly and looked good in attack all afternoon, but our defence, and especially Mike Williamson was excellent, snuffing out the threat. We coped well with that early pressure and then started to respond in kind. Priskin got the ball in his favourite position where he was ahead of his chasing defender and although he was on the right flank and needed a Donnie defender to turn the ball in for him the result was the same. One nil. A few minutes later we were down the same flank again when the ball was crossed for Don Cowie to head over the despairing Neil Sullivan. From being up against it we'd delivered two quick killer blows and then frustrated our opponents for the rest of the half.Although I'm never a fan of the Luton hating songs as I feel we waste far too much of our time and energy singing about them, even I joined in with the "Its blue, its square, they're going down to there, Luton Town, Luton Town" chant that got going during the first half. Yes they've been ridiculously harshly treated with the 30 point penalty but this did cause some hilarity in the away end. As did the name of the half time entertainment cheerleading troupe, the Rovers Baguettes. At least that's what it sounded like. The mind boggles. Is it a Northern euphemism a bit like roasting?
We carried on keeping Donnie at bay for most of the second half which was made interesting by our new loanee Danny Rose who James Chambers and the rest of the defence found to be a right handful. Kind of like an Anthony MacNamee with a few more pies inside him I reckon he'll be a lot of fun to watch in the remaining six games.
With five minutes to go an unlikely long range shot from James Hayter beat Scott Loach and suddenly nerves that hadn't been present all afternoon leapt to the fore as one remembered the Cardiff and Sheffield Wednesday experiences. However we saved our best display of the game for the finale. I've been critical in the past of us passing it around for the sake of it and have said I'd rather see us get a third than sitting on a second. However, with Priskin and Cowie taken off and Tommy Smith not having his best game ever we never looked like getting a third today despite Sullivan's dodgyness. So we sensibly passed the ball around and ran it into the corners to run the clock down. Despite the home fans attempting to lift their team for the only time all afternoon we comfortably saw it out.
I wish Donnie well and hope they stay up. With Charlton surely gone and Southampton having a major crisis at just the wrong moment I reckon they, like us, will actually end up more mid table than bottom six.
