Merry Christmas Masochists!

Wemberleee Wemberleee!!

Concerned we’re using up all our goals against Chesterfield four days too early.

Football at all levels has a dangerously insane relationship with its referees, but in non-league it also comes with a chasm between reality and foaming Twitter activists who've never been to a game. This week's newsletter is on the AFC Rushden & Diamonds v Coventry Sphinx match abandonment.

Chesterfield away then. A tricky draw and, as our recent form against them suggests, very losable. I really hope they’ve chosen to concentrate on the league this year. #FACup

Big fan of Carlisle United managing to score their winning goal before their own equaliser today

Bloody love the #FACup Really hope we still love it at 5pm

Why does Connor O’Riordan look so terrified of a return to Crewe? What horrors has he seen there?

column on robbie keane www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

We really ought to have done this in the inside back cover of popular STAND fanzine

“You’re hundreds of miles from home, you’re cold, you’re soaked through, you’ve lost two nil… you wouldn’t swap this for anything” It’s 10 years ago today that Wales qualified for Euro 2016 in a suitably Welsh way. And I wrote this report-come-mini-novella on the experience of it all…

There’s a vacancy for him elsewhere in League One… be interesting to see if Blackpool go down the Bloomfield road

Gutted that the treble is off. Never mind, the FA Cup is the big one anyway

Gifting Spurs a two goal head start is a bold tactic. Cant see it paying off to be honest. #DRFC #THFC

If you’re hankering after some reading from the recent #DRFC past, @stanchionbooks.bsky.social have got a copy of issue 107 of popular STAND going… stanchionbooks.com/collections/...

Probably should’ve known it wasn’t going to be our day today when they ran out of pies before kick-off in the away end. At Wigan. Where the mascot is a 6ft anthropomorphic pie.

There’s a single Sheffield United fan in our mainly Doncaster Rovers supporting group chat. During their 5-0 loss at Ipswich he was picked out by the tv camera, looking very fed up, in a daft hat, in close up. Just as he was thinking his night couldn’t get any worse, a buzzing began in his pocket.

God speed to those trying to get tickets for Tottenham away today. The #DRFC website appears to be holding up about as well as Lewis Guy in an opposition penalty box

That’ll do. End the season now #DRFC

Trust us to draw Tottenham the season they remember how to play football. #EFLCup

Consensus in the Donny R’sonists WhatsApp is that if all eleven players have taken a penalty in a shootout and it’s still not settled, then the managers should take one

#DRFC win at Accrington to progress to round 3 of the League Cup. It’s our year!

Currently watching forty plus Port Vale fans sit about glumly to a soundtrack of ‘Boogie Wonderland’… it’s like a piece of performance art.

In a pub just outside Vale Park for a post-match pint. Other than me and two others it’s all Vale fans. They’ve a DJ on who really hasn’t read the room, banging out disco and old school soul tunes never mind that getting humped 1-0 at home really isn’t a ‘Do You Love Me (Now That I Can Dance)’ vibe.

The clearest sign yet, in a crowded field, that top flight football is no longer for us. It’s just a different world that, frankly, looks really tiring

Thought #DRFC looked really good tonight; controlled most of the match and reduced Huddersfield to counter attacks. But we’re a decent striker (or at least one that fits the system we’re playing) away from being a good side. And until we find one results like tonight will happen in this division.

@danielgraywriter.bsky.social @camsell59.bsky.social Bob Mortimer, the bloke in the facilities team at work whose randomly started wearing a ‘Boro shirt to work… your boys took a hell of a beating!

That’s why he’s paid the big bucks

That’ll do. End the season now.

Da iawn! Big boost this; brings exactly what the squad is otherwise lacking.

Turns out Liz Truss hates Rotherham

Widnes Vikings 16-20 Doncaster The Dons claim only their second ever victory at Widnes despite playing almost an hour with just 11 men. Genuinely one of the most incredible team performances I’ve ever seen, in any sport.

“LOTS OF LOVE AND SEXY KISSES” – players just don’t write columns like this anymore

Imagine saving four of seven penalties in a shoot-out and still being on the losing side.

It’s Saturday afternoon, so if you need us we’ll be on…

Please @drfcofficial.bsky.social, sort your website's meta data out... I can't in good faith overlook this errant apostrophe any more.

For those on here who enjoy photos of football and people watching football... From Penmaenmawr to Poprad; a photographic round up of how I watched football, the season just gone. popularstandfanzine.com/2025/06/15/h...

“It’s what Soccer Aid is all about” says Jason Manford over footage of a celebrity chef scoring past the 51 year old host of Take Me Out… …nearby a UNICEF rep wonders why they bothered making all those films

Triumphantly proclaiming 'Navy Returns' is a marketing move as odd as it is bold. The colour has only featured in a Rovers home kit three times before, and the last of those was the hugely unpopular 'Thundercat' kit of 2000-01 when #DRFC controversially binned off the viking.

✅ Good sized 'hoops' ✖️ No 'hoops' on the back ✅ Collar ✖️ Solid sleeves meaning it's very red ✖️ Where's all this navy blue come from? 6/10 for me Clive, and that's a generous 6. Hopefully it'll grow on us.

Looking at the final #EPL table on the BBC website and Nottingham Forest will need to recruit well this summer if they’re to compete in all three of the European competitions their 7th place has qualified them for

Absolutely not having that #DRFC beating Leeds United at Wembley was 17 years ago today. It’s surely eight at the most.

Barry Richardson! Or as he was described in a turn of millennia edition of popular STAND fanzine (by I think Matt Clift), 'The Guardian of the Goalposts – not because he refuses to let anything pass, but because he's as effective at stopping a moving ball as a broadsheet newspaper'.

Happy James Coppinger Hat-Trick Day to all who celebrate it! #DRFC www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mPR...

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

A fitting end to a brilliant season. Not just for the title win, but the way it’s been achieved. The bond between players and fans feels the strongest it’s ever been, and in modern football that’s arguably harder to make happen. Viva Rovers!

Twelve years after the last of those Peel sessions, one of this band would chain themselves to a goalpost at Belle Vue. You can’t say that about The Wedding Present. Get on this!

Them: Do you think #DRFC will go on and win the title next weekend? Me, watching videos of Billy Sharp crowd surfing through the beer garden at The Sal: You know, I’m not feeling that confident

Couldn’t get to #DRFC today, so rather than chew my hands off listening, I took myself to Caernarfon and turned my phone off. Caved with 15 mins left, got it on the radio, and, well, almost had a complete breakdown in between a castle and a farmers market. Rovers, I love you and hate you. Always.

GET IN THERE!!!!!!!! YOOOUUUUUUUUU RRREEEEEDDSSSSS!!!!!!!