Match: Doncaster Rovers - Nationwide League Division Three

Date: Monday, April 12th, 2004

Result: Doncaster 2 Cambridge United 0

Method of Transport: Car

Departure Time: 9.30am

Arrival at Ground: After last week's road work fiasco on the way to Mansfield, we avoided the worst of the delays by taking a detour through the place up the A1, ensuring that there was never any danger of being late.  After a leisurely stop en route, we parked in the large car park at the ground shortly after 12.15pm.

The stop was not, I hasten to add, at the portakabin café close to the A57 roundabout, as it had burned down.  Its demise was not a laughing matter, although the undamaged sign, still attached to the charred remains, which read 'Frying Tonight', was.

Cartoon by Phil Jackson

Mileage: 261.0 miles

Total Distance for Season: 7,656.2 miles

Admission Prices: £13 and £7 in the seats, £10 and £5 on the terrace.

Programme: A5, rather than the larger, almost standard B5, 'Rovers Review' was £2 and contained 52 pages.  The smaller size took a little getting used to, but it's glossy pages contained a lot of action photos - most of which came out okay!  The layout was a little confusing however, with the sections of the U's spread randomly throughout, but the page showing the respective 'run ins' of the promotion chasing Clubs will have been useful for the home fans.

Conduct of Police/Stewards: Plentiful and on their guard for anyone running on the pitch, the stewards were generally helpful enough.  As only a handful of home fans ran on at the end, to the displeasure of the vast majority of Doncaster fans, the stewards were able to join in the spirit of celebration around the ground after the match.

Conduct of Home Fans: With reports of up to 2,000 locked out, there were red and white hooped replica shirts everywhere - including on garage roofs, shed roofs and balconies overlooking the ground - and it was amusing to watch as a couple scaled the wall into the ground midway through the first half.

Whether it was because they were nervous or, with the attendance about 3,000 up on their last match, so not many knew which colours Doncaster played in, there was plenty of noise from the Donny fans before the match and then not much was heard from them until their scored their second goal.

Conduct of United Fans: Loud for most the game, it was the U's fans that provided much of the atmosphere before the home team scored.  Many stayed behind to applaud Doncaster off the pitch.

United Travelling Contingent: 625

State of Ground: On the opposite side of the road to the racecourse, Belle Vue comprehensively fails to live up to its name with a fading collection of painted red buildings behind a large car park.

The vintage theme is continued inside the ground too, with the Main Stand the only area of seating.  Those seats were mainly of the plastic variety bolted onto wooden benches although, in some places, there was just a hard, wooden plank on which to sit.  In front of this stand were half a dozen shallow but wide steps of terracing, only the rear two of three of which benefited from the corrugated iron roof.

Facing this, a newish terrace also had sufficient roof to cover only the rear section, but this was better than the terracing behind either goal, which was completely open to the elements.

A massive playing area, with large run-offs, was marked with the lines for both football and Rugby League, which made it a little confusing at times, and there was plenty of grass to be seen in two of the corners which were simply steep, verdant banks leading to the perimeter fence of the stadium.

View from Away End: U's fans were allocated one block of seats at the end of the main stand and the terracing in front of it, and although there wasn't much of a roof over this stand, there were more than enough pillars to block your view from the seats.  Segregation wasn't great in the seats either, but this didn't cause a problem.

Food/Drink: A decent range of food with even the tea tasting of tea - a rarity inside football grounds!

State of Toilets: If the ground itself was a contender for the 'Antiques Roadshow', the toilets were more 'Time Team'.  Positively dark age in design - and not just because the lights didn't work - the urinals were still blocked from our last visit in 1997.

Officials Performance: Mr Evans was very poor. He got nothing right all afternoon and was picky, pedantic and inconsistent.

Additional Comments: The journey back was enlivened by a stop at Grantham Services where we met what must be the only Bulgarian Yeovil Town fans in the world.