Slipperduke
The Camden Cad
It would have been impossible for the ticket office staff to recognise them when they arrived. Clad in red and white scarves and speaking in broad Yorkshire accents, the Leeds United supporters who had failed to secure Wembley tickets in their half of the stadium surreptiously crept down the road to their opponent’s home and began snaffling their allocation instead. Today’s League One Play-Off Final is a battle between two fine footballing teams, but there’s every chance that it could be remembered instead as a battle between the supporters.
Doncaster Rovers were forced to suspend ticket sales this week when they realised what had happened and Wembley officials have been having palpitations as they try to comprehend what could happen when dozens of Leeds fans stand up and make themselves known. The Elland Road faithful are, sometimes unfairly, perceived as the most violent, aggressive supporters in the country and no-one wants to imagine what could happen if it all goes wrong.
All of which is very sad because it detracts from what should be a fantastic game of football between two excellent teams, both battling for the chance to humiliate Derby County next season. Leeds United famously lived the dream until it became a financial nightmare and they slipped into the third flight last season. Slapped with a further 15 point penalty, the fact that they are at Wembley at all is an astonishing achievement for the club. Their excellent early form went awry mid-season when assistant manager Gustavo Poyet left for White Hart Lane and Dennis Wise floundered in his absence, but the appointment of Gary McAllister has led to a stylistic renaissance as the ball is returned to ground level and the players are encouraged to express themselves. After 95 minutes of their semi-final first leg at home to Carlisle, they were two goals down. An injury time scuff from the old warhorse Dougie Freedman gave them a lifeline and they used it to strangle their opponents in the next leg, winning 2-0 in front of several thousand crest-fallen Cumbrians.
With the media focusing their attention on the fallen giants, no-one has really noticed quite how impressive Doncaster Rovers are these days. Well, no-one apart from the Southend fans who are still reeling from the shock of a 5-1 battering in their semi-final clash. It was a performance so polished and so emphatic that, as a Southend fan myself, I needed to get very, very drunk indeed to cope with shame. They were so good that I’ve actually only just sobered up this morning.
Doncaster also have a terrible history of financial mismanagement and actually dropped out of the Football League altogether in 1998, with the former chairman languishing in jail following an unsuccessful attempt to torch the stadium for the insurance money. They returned under the benevolence of local businessman and boyhood fan John Ryan who, having secured legend status by saving the team from extinction, then did exactly what all of us would do in his position, and registered himself as a player, coming on for the last five minutes in a meaningless game against Hereford. Ryan has presided over an era that has seen Doncaster rise from non-league to the brink of the second flight and, whatever division they’re in next season, they’ll be playing at their gorgeous, new and hopefully-unburnable Keepmoat Stadium.
With both teams eager to get the ball down and play their way to promotion, everyone in football is praying that this game will be remembered for what happens on the pitch, and not what could occur off it.
Doncaster Rovers were forced to suspend ticket sales this week when they realised what had happened and Wembley officials have been having palpitations as they try to comprehend what could happen when dozens of Leeds fans stand up and make themselves known. The Elland Road faithful are, sometimes unfairly, perceived as the most violent, aggressive supporters in the country and no-one wants to imagine what could happen if it all goes wrong.
All of which is very sad because it detracts from what should be a fantastic game of football between two excellent teams, both battling for the chance to humiliate Derby County next season. Leeds United famously lived the dream until it became a financial nightmare and they slipped into the third flight last season. Slapped with a further 15 point penalty, the fact that they are at Wembley at all is an astonishing achievement for the club. Their excellent early form went awry mid-season when assistant manager Gustavo Poyet left for White Hart Lane and Dennis Wise floundered in his absence, but the appointment of Gary McAllister has led to a stylistic renaissance as the ball is returned to ground level and the players are encouraged to express themselves. After 95 minutes of their semi-final first leg at home to Carlisle, they were two goals down. An injury time scuff from the old warhorse Dougie Freedman gave them a lifeline and they used it to strangle their opponents in the next leg, winning 2-0 in front of several thousand crest-fallen Cumbrians.
With the media focusing their attention on the fallen giants, no-one has really noticed quite how impressive Doncaster Rovers are these days. Well, no-one apart from the Southend fans who are still reeling from the shock of a 5-1 battering in their semi-final clash. It was a performance so polished and so emphatic that, as a Southend fan myself, I needed to get very, very drunk indeed to cope with shame. They were so good that I’ve actually only just sobered up this morning.
Doncaster also have a terrible history of financial mismanagement and actually dropped out of the Football League altogether in 1998, with the former chairman languishing in jail following an unsuccessful attempt to torch the stadium for the insurance money. They returned under the benevolence of local businessman and boyhood fan John Ryan who, having secured legend status by saving the team from extinction, then did exactly what all of us would do in his position, and registered himself as a player, coming on for the last five minutes in a meaningless game against Hereford. Ryan has presided over an era that has seen Doncaster rise from non-league to the brink of the second flight and, whatever division they’re in next season, they’ll be playing at their gorgeous, new and hopefully-unburnable Keepmoat Stadium.
With both teams eager to get the ball down and play their way to promotion, everyone in football is praying that this game will be remembered for what happens on the pitch, and not what could occur off it.
