popular STAND

Rushden & Diamonds match abandonment was the right response from the referee. Non-league deserves a better reaction. The idiotic opinions of social media meatheads have no bearing on football safeguarding in the real world

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

The score and match stats from Carlisle’s FA Cup 1st round win at Reading. The game was 2-2 at full time, with Carlisle winning after extra time. Their goal times, all scored by Linney, are shown as 90+3, 90+8 and 94.

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

Good news.
We still bloody love the #FACup!

Good performance from #DRFC that, which (eventually) got the result it deserved.

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?

Standing with Maccabi’s football hooligans against local police – is that what patriotism looks like now? | Jonathan Liew Tommy Robinson is said to be going to Villa Park as a Maccabi Tel Aviv fan. Do the politicians jumping on this bandwagon care what they are doing, asks Guardian columnist Jonathan Liew

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

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

Zen, Zenith, Zenica; Losing and Winning with Wales in Bosnia As you edge through the gloom, towards the away terrace, the reality of the enormity of the game hits you. This really could be it.

“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

Back Issues Such is the quality, the brilliance, the sagaciousness of popular STAND fanzine that most issues we print tend to sell out. However, sometimes, due to adverse weather conditions, optimistic print r…

Oh wait, so have we. That and a few other fanzine back issues in fact…

popularstandfanzine.com/back-issues/

popular STAND #107 From the publisher: February 2022 issue of this long-running Doncaster Rovers fanzine.  --- 15 x 21 cm Paperback 40 pages February 2022 English

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

Oh yeah, naturally…
Jokingly confident, naturally pessimistic

The current League One table, which has Doncaster Rovers in second place, behind leaders Cardiff City only on goal difference.

That’ll do.
End the season now
#DRFC

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

#EFLCup

…then the assistant, then the physio… and if it’s still level after that it’s the mascot’s turn.

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

Seen from the back of their stand, a full away end of Doncaster Rovers fans watch their on the attack at Huddersfield Town

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!

Headline of a newspaper article that reads ‘Arne Slot says Liverpool ‘need to be better’ after Community Shield defeat’

That’s why he’s paid the big bucks

That’ll do. End the season now.