Doncaster away preview for Saturday

[Sweden Stag]

For the first time in five seasons, the Stags will face Doncaster in a League fixture. And just like in the 2016-17 season, it is a League Two one. From the then Stags line-up at Doncaster just before Easter 2017, one player was later to play a few campaigns for Doncaster. The name: Ben Whiteman.

Five years ago, it was to be the first time since the 2003-04 season, the Stags travelled to Doncaster for a League fixture. Prior to that season, Doncaster wrote themselves in the history books by becoming the first team being promoted to the league through a playoffs final and did so on golden goal against Dagenham & Redbridge thus ensuring a league return after five Conf seasons after the relegation in 1997-98, a truly awful campaign for the Doncaster fans with only four wins and 34 defeats. Add to that 113 goals against, a record for the league basement division, and seventeen home defeats, later equalled by Darlington in 2009-10 and currently Leyton Orient (with two home fixtures left).

Doncaster then needed five seasons to return to the FL. Owner then: John Radford, who also was Stags owner when they returned after an absence of five years a decade later. And Radford still is………

But on their return, Doncaster excelled themselves by figuring in the auto promotion contention along with the Stags, finally winning League Two under the management of Dave Penney.

Since Doncaster’s FL return, they have even managed playing in the Championship. In 2008, they returned to that level after an absence of half a century, exactly 50 years, after a playoff final victory against Leeds. Their first spell lasted four seasons, being relegated in 2012, but returned straight away after injury-time drama at Brentford. But their relegation in 2014 was confirmed by a penalty at the 2015-16 PL champions Leicester and a Birmingham injury-time equalizer at Bolton, which meant Doncaster relegation on worse goal-difference than Birmingham.

Now, Doncaster are back in the basement after five seasons in League One, where they just finished inside the playoff positions in 2018-19. And as recently as around February-March last year, they were strongly challenging for the playoffs. Then came the departure of manager Darren Moore to Sheffield Wednesday. From then on and the remainder of that season, Doncaster showed relegation form, winning just twice, losing eleven and slid just inside the bottom half. And last season, they slid early into the relegation zone, and days before last season’s FA Cup fixture at Doncaster between the sides, Richie Wellens departed Keepmoat. The Stags went through to the third round to a deserved 3-2 scoreline.

From then on, the Doncaster relegation was inevitable, even though they beat Sunderland at their place and escaped the bottom two places late on.

So far this season, Doncaster have had a habit of scoring very late. Two goals in added time at home to Sutton, an injury-time winner at home to Stockport as well as coming from 2-0 down to snatch a 2-2 draw at AFC Wimbledon in the final minutes. Meanwhile, the Stags have won all their home fixtures so far but have lost all their away ones, most recently at Sutton last Saturday.

In the League, the game on November 11, 1966 provided the most goals on aggregate between the two clubs as the Stags won 6-4 with two goals apiece from Curry (goal taste too strong for Donny?) and Brace, one each from McKinney and Morris in front of 7188, this being the second game in a run of six consecutive league wins in the 1966-67 season. The teams have also met on opening days, at Doncaster in 1970-71 and at Field Mill in 1948-49 (a 2-2 attended by 16749) and 1986-87. The 1986-87 one staged the Stags’ comeback in the old third division on August 23, 1986 when Kearney and Lowery put the Stags on the winning trail in front of 3969.

At Doncaster’s old ground, Belle Vue, the Stags had a good record over the years, winning twelve and losing just eight, among them their final league trip to Belle Vue on October 18, 2003 which ended in a Stags 4-2 defeat. Prior to that fixture, the Stags played six games at Doncaster without conceding, winning four and drawing two.

The Stags’ biggest home win against Doncaster is a 4-0 rout in the old fourth Division on September 2, 1961.

The clubs have also faced each other in the FA Cup on seven occasions with the Stags going through four times and Doncaster three, the latest after a replay in 2006. And the first-ever FA Cup game was also the first one at Doncaster, and that was a 2nd round tie at Belle Vue on December 10, 1949, which Doncaster won by the only goal of the game in front of 23545!, and also the second FA Cup game was played at Belle Vue, nearly exactly 30 years later, on December 15, 1979, when 7952 saw Nimmo score for Doncaster. But that was not enough as Bob Curtis and Terry Austin scored for the Stags setting up a 3rd round home tie against Brighton with ex-Stag Ray Clarke.

And even in the Stags non-league days did the teams face each other prior to Doncaster’s election to the League in 1923. The Stags did also face Doncaster’s reserve side for a couple of seasons afterwards. But only the first team fixtures are listed below.

Doncaster, who along with Notts County were the first team to go straight from the old second division to the old fourth in 1958-59, have had some famous names in the hot seat.

Among them are George Raynor, who managed the Swedish national team around the time of the World Cup Finals in Sweden way back in 1958 and played nine league games for the Stags way back in 1932. Other well-known names in the Doncaster hot-seat include Billy Bremner (two spells), Lawrie McMenemy and Dave Mackay.

Several players have represented both sides over the years. Among them are some members of the Stags team which disposed of Leeds in the 1994-95 League Cup, John Doolan, Kevin Noteman and the scorer at Leeds, Simon Ireland as well as two players from the 2001-02 promotion one, Martin Pemberton and Les Robinson.
Yet a player who came from Doncaster without making their first team went on to be a key member of the Stags championship sides in the 1970’s. And the name is Kevin Bird.

Played for both sides: Tomi Ameobi, George Antonio, Terry Austin, Alex Baptiste, James Baxendale, Chris Beardsley, Andy Beasley, David Bentley, Rakish Bingham, Matty Blair, Kim Book, Jordan Bowery, Graham Brown, Alf Calverley, Matt Carmichael, Neville Chamberlain, Peter Clark (early 1960’s, not the one that played three league games in 2002-03), Nicky Clarke, Digger Daley, O’Neill Donaldson, John Doolan, Thomas Dutton, Stephen Foster, Ben Futcher, Oscar Gobern, Warren Hackett, Jim Harkin, Steve Harper, John Haselden, Ian Helliwell, Stuart Hicks, Simeon Hodson, Fred Horsman, Guy Ipoua, Simon Ireland, Charles Johnston, Harold Keetley, Joe Laidlaw, Harry Lee, Brian Moore, Ernie Moss, Kevin Noteman, Gordon Owen, Barry Richardson, Don O’Riordan, Nathan Peel, Martin Pemberton, Mark Place, Steve Prindiville, Ricky Ravenhill, Ken Reeve, Barry Richardson, Keith Ripley, Dudley Roberts, Les Robinson, Alan Rushby, Mark Sale, Kevin Sandwith, John Saunders, Jon Schofield, Emile Sinclair, Jamie Squires, William Taylor, Tyrone Thompson, Steve Uzelac, Tyler Walker, Ben Whiteman, Neil Woods.

Non-league games:

Season Home Date Away Date

1921-22 3-1 1922-04-22 2-3 1922-02-11 Midland Counties League
1922-23 1-0 1922-12-26 0-2 1923-04-28 Midland Counties League

Home stats: P 2, W 2, D 0, L 0, GF 4, GA 1
Away stats: P 2, W 0, D 0, L 2, GF 2, GA 5

League games:

Home stats: P 27, W 12, D 9, L 6, GF 48, GA 30
Away stats: P 27, W 12, D 6, L 9, GF 37, GA 31

Season Home Date Away Date

1932-33 2-2 1933-03-11 2-2 1932-10-29 Div 3 (N)
1933-34 1-1 1934-03-17 0-1 1933-04-11 Div 3 (N)
1934-35 2-0 1934-11-03 1-2 1935-03-16 Div 3 (N)
1948-49 2-2 1948-08-21 1-1 1948-12-18 Div 3 (N)
1949-50 1-2 1949-10-15 1-0 1950-04-15 Div 3 (N)
1958-59 3-1 1959-02-28 2-0 1958-10-11 Div 3 (old)
1960-61 1-2 1961-04-17 3-2 1961-04-25 Div 4 (old)
1961-62 4-0 1961-09-02 1-0 1962-01-12 Div 4 (old)
1962-63 4-2 1963-04-16 1-1 1963-04-15 Div 4 (old)
1966-67 3-1 1966-10-17 6-4 1966-11-15 Div 3 (old)
1969-70 1-2 1969-10-06 0-2 1969-08-16 Div 3 (old)
1970-71 2-1 1970-10-17 2-1 1970-08-15 Div 3 (old)
1972-73 0-0 1972-12-30 1-0 1972-08-19 Div 4 (old)
1973-74 2-0 1974-04-29 0-0 1974-03-26 Div 4 (old)
1974-75 5-2 1974-11-16 3-4 1975-02-22 Div 4 (old)
1980-81 1-1 1981-05-06 1-2 1980-12-19 Div 4 (old)
1983-84 1-2 1983-09-03 1-3 1984-01-07 Div 4 (old)
1986-87 2-1 1986-08-23 0-1 1987-02-17 Div 3 (old)
1987-88 2-0 1987-09-29 2-0 1988-03-01 Div 3 (old)
1991-92 2-2 1991-11-02 1-0 1992-03-14 Div 4 (old)
1993-94 2-1 1994-03-12 1-0 1993-09-17 Div 3
1994-95 0-1 1994-10-22 2-0 1995-01-10 Div 3
1995-96 0-0 1995-08-29 0-0 1996-03-25 Div 3
1996-97 2-0 1997-01-21 0-0 1996-09-07 Div 3
1997-98 1-1 1997-09-05 3-0 1998-03-02 Div 3
2003-04 1-2 2004-02-21 2-4 2003-10-18 Div 3
2016-17 1-1 2016-12-31 0-1 2017-04-08 League Two

FA Cup

1949-50 (at Belle Vue) 0-1 1949-12-10 2nd round
1979-80 (at Belle Vue) 2-1 1979-12-15 2nd round
1981-82 (at Field Mill) 0-1 1981-11-21 1st round
1983-84 (at Field Mill) 3-0 1983-11-19 1st round
1995-96 (at Field Mill) 4-2 1995-11-11 1st round
2006-07 (at Field Mill) 1-1 2006-02-12 2nd round
2006-07 (at Belle Vue) 0-2 2006-12-12 2nd round replay
2021-22 (at Keepmoat) 3-2 2021-12-04 2nd round

League Cup

1974-75 (at Belle Vue) 1-2 1974-08-20 1st round
1980-81 (at Belle Vue) 1-1 1980-08-08 1st round, 1st leg
1980-81 (at Field Mill) 2-1 1980-08-11 1st round, 2nd leg (Stags through 3-2 on aggregate)

EFL Trophy

2016-17 at One Call Stadium 0-2 2016-08-30 group stage

A very good test is on the cards. Come on Mansfield!