Viva Rovers takes its name from a piece of grafitti daubed on the underside of the Balby Road rail bridge which I have passed on my way to and from Doncaster fixtures for the best part of a decade. The site began life in July 2006 as part of the Rivals network, though the aim from the outset was to offer a more reasoned and considered take on Doncaster Rovers than the other websites available at the time. Although this approach did not make the site a universal favourite amongst Rovers fans it did build something of a cult following and lead one supporter, posting on the VSC forum to describe Viva Rovers as ‘high-brow’. Praise indeed.

For three years Viva Rovers trundled along nicely, then in July 2009 Sky Sports, who had purchased Rivals a year earlier, decided to pull the plug on the network. With all the subtlety and honour you would expect of a Rupert Murdoch backed enterprise they did so unannounced, simply taking the site offline and then notifying editors of tje move via an email some hours later. Alas Viva Rovers like numerous other established sites that had been laboured over by supporters for years, disappeared into cyber-space. In the days after Sky terminated Rivals I had a number of offers to relocate Viva Rovers on alternate club website networks. Whilst I don’t doubt that these offers were from folk more genuine and honest than Sky I declined, thinking it would be much safer to go it alone, as such relocated the site here.

Viva Rovers has twice been mentioned in the hallowed pages of premier football magazine When Saturday Comes, first when our opinion was sought on the aforementioned Rivals closure, and secondly when we were acknowledged with a Bronze in the 2009 WSC Web Awards.

Viva Rovers came to an end on Christmas Eve 2011 as alas the enjoyment had gone. Thank you to all those who took the time to read the site during its five and a half year run, and to the many folk who offered kind words on Viva during its existence, many of which are reproduced below.

• “a tour de force in how to actually write”    [BobG posting on the VSC Forum]
• “A most enjoyable read, very accurate after a humourous start”    [David Frost via email, 15th Feb 2009]
• “Another excellent piece on the Charlton match. I like your headlines and your humour and as always the quality of the writing”    [Michael James via email, 5th March 2009]
• “…it derserves more readers than it gets as it has excellent humourous articles” [Viking Don posting on the VSC Forum, 28th May 2009]
• “I am in awe at his prowess as an editor – I send him the most dull impenetrable set of statistics and he makes a flowing readable interesting article. Viva ‘Viva Rovers’”     [Dutch Uncle VSC Forum, 29th May 2009]
• “Viva Rovers is a brilliant read”    [from Smog Blog, a Middlesborough FC fan's website, August 2009]
• “One of the best club blogs on the web in my eyes”    [The Two Unfortunates, a Football League Blogsite, September 2009]
• “I’m not a Doncaster supporter, but it’s encouraging to see somebody offering regular independent and involved football coverage in the face of an awful lot of online dross”    [Mark Sanderson via email, 27th October 2009]
• “Dry wit combined with well-informed football analysis.”    [Ian Plenderleith, When Saturday Comes, December 2009]
• “As relishable as the football Doncaster play”    [The Two Unfortunates, a Football League Blogsite, 12th December 2009]
• “Its refreshing, interesting and makes a nice change from neutral dull match reports and official articles.”    [Darren Neagle via email, 5th August 2010]
• “I always find Viva a fantastic read. What impresses me most is the quality of work on that site.”    [Martin B posting on the VSC Forum, 13th August 2010]
• “Of all the reports I send out to exiles Viva Rovers are the best by far.”    [Ray Illingworth posting on the VSC Forum, 2nd January 2011]
• “Viva Rovers continues to pave the way in terms of fanzine esque sites”    [The Two Unfortunates, a Football League Blogsite, 7th June 2011]
• “Coming from a Leeds fan this may be frowned upon by DRFC fans but always interested in what Viva Rovers has to say.”    [Chris Medwell (@chrismedwell) via Twitter, 9th June 2011]
• “Hugely interesting and wonderfully written.”  [John Ashdown, The Guardian, 30th September 2011]
• “…serves no purpose other than self gratification.”   [Gareth Thomas, VSC Director, 30th September 2011]
• “Writing to truly admire.”  [David Bevan, The 72 Football, 1st October 2011]

If you wish to get in touch with Viva Rovers then feel free to drop us an email via vivarovers@hotmail.com

meet the team

Though, like now, we often refer to ourselves in the plural here at Viva Rovers, the site is actually written and edited by just one man. Glen Wilson began the website in 2006 to fill time as he looked for something his gran would regard as a ‘proper job’. Such employment is yet to arrive, but Viva Rovers continues unabashed and unfunded. In addition to this fine site Glen also writes an equally unheralded travel website called Platform Four and wrote and edited the 2010 World Cup website Twinty Tin, which was enjoyed by the BBC World Service, if no-one else. If that wasn’t enough to inflict on folk Glen also edits the Doncaster Rovers fanzine Popular Stand, having written for the ‘zine since 2000, and is an occasional contributor to When Saturday Comes magazine.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Enter your comment here...

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Email (required) (Address never made public)

Name (required)

Website

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out / Change )

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out / Change )

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out / Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

Notify me of follow-up comments via email.

Notify me of new posts via email.