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First County Visit:	Saturday 7th October 1978
Competition:	Football League Division 4 – (Tier 4)
Result:	Doncaster Rovers 2 – 0 Stockport County
Attendance:	9,054
Away Trip:	6
Away Day:	6
County Line-up	1 Mike Rogan; 2 Andy Thorpe; 3 John Rutter; 4 Alan Thompson; 5 Terry Park; 6 Paul Edwards; 7 Phil Henson; 8 George Armstrong; 9 Les Bradd; 10 Derek Loadwick; (12 Ken Fogarty); 11 Stuart Lee
Manager:	Mike Summerbee
County Visits:	9

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EXCUSE ME OFFICER

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It provided Saturday night entertainment as a young teenager, watching the Aces at the magnificent Hyde Road Stadium, and thence onwards to take advantage of the free admission to sample the delights of the “Bobs” and “Waterchute”.  A place of imagination and excitement.  Maybe I journeyed over to the other Belle Vue expecting much of the same.  Ah well, life is but full of disappointments!

Rovers are writ large in the Hatters history, and of course in the annals of the game. At Edgeley Park on 30 March 1946, in a Division Three (North) cup tie, the Clubs were involved in the longest ever game. The match was deadlocked at 2–2 at 90 minutes, and after two 10-minute periods of extra time there was no further score. The rule at that time was that the game would carry on until one team scored.

However, after 203 minutes, and with darkness closing in, the game was finally stopped. Legend has it that fans were said to have left the game, gone home for their tea, and come back to watch the end of the game. Naturally, of course, County fell to a thumping 4 goal defeat in the replay. Well before my time, but no more than would be expected, if the last 50+ years is anything to go by.

My first trip to Belle Vue was in October 1978, but it wasn’t the first time I had set sail for South Yorkshire. Earlier that year, I had set off blissfully unaware that my vehicle, (an ancient Morris Minor, the first car that I owned), was not up to the task. Heading up Saddleworth Moor, the climb past Dovestones is a trial for an engine, and it proved to be beyond its capabilities. A cloud of steam emanated from under the bonnet and that was that. The trip had to be abandoned, and a lengthy ride back home, involving many stops to top up the radiator, was required.

If nothing else it taught me two things. Firstly to invest in a breakdown service, and secondly, under the tutelage of my Dad, the process in replacing a cylinder head gasket! Those were the days when cars were basically nuts and bolts and could be ‘mended’ at home rather than necessitating an expensive visit to a garage in order to avail oneself of the services of an electrical engineer! Head gasket replaced, the vehicle was set up for a trip – it turned out to be a good ‘un two weeks later. I made it to Oakwell and witnessed “Les Bradd … scoring at hat-trick at Barnsley”.

Long gone now, Belle Vue never proved a happy hunting ground on my travels.  Nine trips with but a solitary victory.  Six defeats as well!  The nine Away Days encompassed 26 years, and in that time a ground which had once accommodated over 37,000 in the halcyon post-war days, had declined from what was a reasonably tidy enclosure to one that was literally falling down.  Vast swathes of terracing were out of bounds; and what was left rendered those who braved it to potential ankle sprains.  A particular disappointment was the disappearance of the Bennetthorpe stand behind one goal, which purportedly had been brought from a previous base.  It always seemed a quirky construction – maybe to the misty eyed like me a throwback to the days when not every ground was a mixture of breeze block and metal with a generous helping of “no atmosphere” thrown in for good measure.

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To football followers the tale of what was criminal mismanagement at Rovers is well known.   During the early 1990s, Ken Richardson, who was later described by detectives as “the type that would trample a two-year-old child to pick up a 2p bit” [Source: The Guardian 30/11/05] took control. He purportedly ploughed cash into Rovers.  Allegedly this was designed to produce a new stadium. The Council didn’t play ball, and the ‘fun’ then started. 

Whether in retaliation, or maybe a bid to garner an insurance payout he obtained the services of some unsavoury, and as it turned out, intellectually challenged individuals.  The objective – to torch Belle Vue and leave the site free for disposal. The conflagration was successful, but with a mobile left at the scene it didn’t take long for the constabulary to trace the perpetrators and their client. Richardson did 4 years at Her Majesty’s pleasure. Rovers fans laid the blame for their eventual relegation into the Conference in 1998 quite firmly at Richardson’s door.

So what’s all this to do with County you may ask.  The only fire that has affected the Hatters was back in 1935 – and by all accounts that started accidentally.  The Main Stand was razed to the ground, but not before County legend Billy Bocking braved the inferno to rescue his boots.  So no similarity with the cause of a fire, but more than a lot in terms of mismanagement on a biblical scale at Board level. 

Rovers unquestionably and literally suffered from criminal mismanagement, County’s was more down to ineptitiude; and the willingness of those who thought that they knew best to welcome a whole litany of chancers and conmen.  Both ended up in the Conference and that’s where the tales diverge.  Rovers recovered, with a return to League football after 5 years in the so-called wilderness.  At the time of writing, (October 2016), they had been as far as the Championship, and currently lie 2^nd in League 2.  Six years after relegation the Hatters have dropped a further Division, but surely must take heart from the way in which Doncaster have recovered from could have been a terminal decline.  We can only hope!!

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Anyway, back to Belle Vue.  Just one victory.  There’s times that I suspect all fans have hopes that the next “great thing” has just been seen. An individual performance so eye-catching that it can be spine tingling.  A bitterly cold night in December 1996 was just one of those.  Season 1996/97 was the ‘annus mirabilis’.  Promotion and a league Cup semi-final were the highlights of a 67 game season.  But it also involved a lengthy run in the Auto Windscreens Shield with a first round game taking us to Doncaster.

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Less than two weeks prior to the encounter at Belle Vue, and a week before the replay, he had scored the equaliser in a League Cup game at West Ham.  Cavaco had made his debut only a couple of months earlier in a draw at what marked Bristol Rovers move back into their new home at the Memorial Ground, (see Away Trip 76), and had become a reasonably regular fixture.  Maybe Dave Jones was thinking about the success with Cavaco when he named one Manuel Charana on the bench at Doncaster.

In common with many foreign imports over the last few years Charana possessed a soubriquet.  For some reason that escapes my research he was announced as ‘Kiko’. Entering the fray with about 20 minutes left, his performance was electrifying.  Weaving his way past the flailing Rovers defence, with the ball seemingly tied to his boots, he more than brightened up the evening, and in doing so rescued County from what really would have been an ignominious defeat at the hands of a side which was to end in the deep southern part of Division 3, (Tier 4), that season. 

All the talk as the County contingent , who must have comprised the vast majority of the 988 throng, wasn’t of progress in the competition but more what they had just witnessed.  “What a talent”; “The missing piece in the jigsaw” said some.  Others, more prone to hyperbole, talked about “World class”.  A few realists mentioned stuff about the quality of the opposition.  Full of admiration and excited by what I’d just seen, I had also noticed that his 20 minute or so cameo, had left him blowing like a tired old steam engine and wondered about his staying power.

All the talk the following Saturday, in a home game against Peterborough, was about this “new kid”.  He got another run out as sub, but without having anything like the same impact.  And less than three months later, with 2 more roles as sub, and a single start in yet another Auto Windscreens game at Burnley he was gone.  Just how many players over the years, no matter who you support, have promised so much on first sighting, but delivered so little.  I imagine Clubs are littered with tales like this.

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There’s been many things written about the South Yorkshire Police, but even many years before the events at Hillsborough they had a reputation for a less than friendly, indeed more like confrontational attitude to football fans. And they provided me with the nearest I’ve ever been to being ejected from a ground. For some reason Arthur Brotherton and I ended up sat in the Main Stand. It was a game around 7 or 8 months after Hillsborough. Now it didn’t take much common sense to not smoke in the Main Stand. A wooden construction it was open to going up in flames .. although not under the circumstances that it eventually happened.

The bloke in front of me clearly decided that the structure was inflammable and sparked up. He took a long draw on his tab, and exhaled a cloud. It drew the attention of one of South Yorkshire’s finest who then demonstrated in the space of less than a minute a full judgement of what is important and what isn’t. It will come as no surprise that the latter was what possessed him.

Pushing his way down the line he stood in front of the offender; berated him and told him to extinguish his cigarette. The bloke acknowledged all of this and did as he was told and very promptly as well. .. so job done you would think. Oh no! The bollocking continued apace. You might ask what this had to do with me.

Well, he was stationed right in front of me obscuring any of the action that was unfolding on the pitch. I suggested that I’d paid good money to watch a match and could he get a move on. No profanities or anything else. This turned his attention to yours truly and a suggestion that I might have paid to watch but I wasn’t going to see any more of it as he wasn’t being talked to like that. I was just on the cusp of being escorted out when some other soul a few seats away told him to go and do something useful, interspersing this with a suggestions about the marital status of his parents. This was obviously considered a greater offence and much to my relief, (and Arthur’s intense amusement), he moved on.

It was a typical example of overkill – the original offence was stupid, and correctly dealt with. The ensuing reaction told me what I had felt for some time that, at that time, police forces up and down the land were “out for confrontation”. Thankfully, being a law abiding citizen as a matter of principle, and one who never had the slightest interest in “football firms”, other to avoid any contact at all costs, this is the sole time I have faced the force of the law!!

A solitary trip to Belle Vue in 2004 marked the last time our paths have crossed.  Belle Vue is no more.  It’s the Keepmoat for Rovers now, and maybe, just maybe, it’ll be time in the none too distant future for me to renew acquaintance with them.  But I’ll wager good money that it doesn’t have the same kind of atmosphere as did the Belle Vue of 1978.  None of these new grounds ever do…..

October 2016

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VISITS

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Day	Date	Competition	Tier / Round	Opponents	Res	F	A	Crowd	Away Day
Saturday	07/10/78	Football League Division 4	Tier 4	Doncaster Rovers	L	0	2	9,054	6
Saturday	01/03/80	Football League Division 4	Tier 4	Doncaster Rovers	D	1	1	3,332	24
Friday	10/04/81	Football League Division 4	Tier 4	Doncaster Rovers	L	1	2	6,120	40
Saturday	31/12/83	Canon League Division 4	Tier 4	Doncaster Rovers	L	1	2	3,736	90
Saturday	15/04/89	Barclays League Division 4	Tier 4	Doncaster Rovers	D	2	2	1,363	171
Saturday	02/12/89	Barclays League Division 4	Tier 4	Doncaster Rovers	L	1	2	3,023	180
Monday	01/04/91	Barclays League Division 4	Tier 4	Doncaster Rovers	L	0	1	3,372	210
Tuesday	10/12/96 (Highlights)	Auto Windscreens Trophy	Northern Round 1	Doncaster Rovers	W	2	1	988	340
Saturday	20/11/04	Coca-Cola Football League – League 1	Tier 3	Doncaster Rovers	L	1	3	6,697	515

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ON MY JOURNEY WITH COUNTY AROUND 180 GROUNDS

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Previously – GRESTY ROAD Next stop – COUNTY GROUND (NORTHAMPTON)