PU PREVIEW 39: DONCASTER ROVERS

Doncaster Rovers FC was formed in 1879 when a fitter, Albert Jenkins, gathered friends together to play a match against the Yorkshire Institute for the Deaf and Dumb. After the game, the men decided to keep playing. Their first official match was on 3 October 1879 and the club are believed to have had their first professional players in 1887-88. The club became founder members of the Midland Alliance League in 1890-91 and was elected to the Football League in 1901. They lost their League status after only two years. Doncaster regained their place, only to lose it again, and after more years in the Midland League the club ended up in voluntary liquidation in August 1914. A new club was formed in time for the 1914-15 season, only for World War One to intervene. Doncaster reformed as a limited company in 1919, playing at Bennetthorpe Ground, moving to Belle Vue in 1922. They were readmitted to the Football League for the 1923-24 season. On 30 March 1946, Doncaster played Stockport County in the longest ever competitive football match. The Division Three (North) cup tie was deadlocked at 2-2. Play continued beyond extra-time and finally stopped after 203 minutes with darkness closing in! Rovers won the replay 4-0. Doncaster won 33 League games in the 1946-47 season, a record at the time. The club lost their League status in 1998 after a period in the early 1990s that saw their majority shareholder imprisoned. The Westferry Consortium took Rovers over at the beginning of the 1998-99 season and the club began to rebuild. Rovers returned to the Football League in 2003. The club reached the League Cup quarter-finals in 2005-06, losing to Arsenal on penalties. Doncaster played their first game at the Keepmoat Stadium on 1 January 2007 and won the Football League Trophy 3-2 versus Bristol Rovers in the same year, in the first major cup final in the club's history. Rovers finished sixth in League One at the end of the 2018-19 season.

Doncaster is nicknamed Rovers, Donny or the Vikings and is managed by former Pompey defender Darren Moore (appointed July 2019).

Pompey and Doncaster have met on twenty-two occasions, with the first meeting coming at Belle Vue in the FA Cup in January 1947. Pompey won 3-2 and also won the only other Cup meeting between the sides. Of the twenty League meetings, Pompey has won eight, Doncaster six and six have been drawn. The last meeting took place in February 2019 at Fratton Park and ended in a 1-1 draw. 

(Information via Wikipedia and www.11v11.com)