announcements

Viva Over – On Calling it a Day

So that’s that then. Five and a half years of tapping away at keyboards and hoping various bosses don’t notice that I’m not actually copying out the spreadsheet I said I was come to an end. One of the reasons I began Viva was because I felt there was a gap on the web for a more reasoned and relaxed take on the Rovers. The excellent Donny f***ing Rovers had gone, YAURS had lost its battle to retain the Empire and suddenly it was the official site or nowt. The other, and more important reason, was because I enjoyed writing and wanted to do it more regularly. Continue reading →

Caption Competition: Win a Cashmere Rovers Scarf

‘Tis the season of giving, and so not only are we offering new t-shirt designs of our own, but Viva Rovers has also teamed up with Savile Rogue to give you the opportunty to win a fine cashmere football scarf in Doncaster Rovers colours. No garish logos, or slogans, or itchy nylon, just a traditional red and white football scarf in high grade wool. Perfect for the cold weather be you out on strike, or twirling it above your head in celebration of a Brian Stock wonder goal. Continue reading →

New T-Shirts in the Viva Rovers Shop

Bored of the same old generic football clothing? Want something a bit different? Long to see the poster art of late 1930s British Ministry of Information married with stuff you used to yell at Steve Wignall from the Pop Side? If the answer to any or all these questions is yes, then you’re in luck, as Viva Rovers is proud to launch our latest t-shirt design, harking back to a simpler time, when we could all get along and unite under a common understanding, that Tommy Wright was bloody awful. Continue reading →

That’s Squad Numberwang (new season)

With Rovers bringing in eight new faces over the summer, well seven new faces and one aged one if you count Chris Brown, its time to bring you up to speed with who’ll be wearing what on their shirt this coming season. Of course we don’t do things by halves here at Viva Towers, so we don’t just tell you who currently has each squad number, but who’s shoes (or armpits) they are trying to fill. Our squad numberwang list below contains every player to have worn each squad number since they were introduced to Rovers at the start of the 2002-03 Conference season. Consider yourself very informed… Continue reading →

Viva Rovers is Back

Right, that’ll do, two weeks is enough of a break, time to peel back the creaking shutters from the ornate gothic windows of Viva Towers, dust off the cheerleaders, and get this show back on the road. Actual football is almost upon us, the guff almost left behind, or at least playing an ignorable second fiddle, I’m back up north (has it been this tropical the decade I’ve been away? why did no-one tell me?) and ready to get things moving again. Continue reading →

Viva Rovers is on a Break

I probably could’ve left it at the title I guess… its explanatory enough, but yes, Viva Rovers is having a break. Regular readers (or even occasional ones) will have already fathomed that I don’t have much love for top flight football in its modern guise, with particular disdain for all the hyperbole and guff which surrounds it. I don’t like rumour, or speculation and I believe the usage and encouragement of the word ‘banter’ to be a worse crime than pedophilia. The one saving grace is that I do genuinely love what all this gubbins revolves around, the eye of Hurricane Shitstorm, the actual football, but that continues to be lost in a sea of bollocks.

Take for example this ‘story’ which appeared on the Daily Mail website yesterday; Doncaster slap £3.25m price tag on Birmingham target Sharp screams the headline delivered in a font so large it is bigger than the text of the 33 word long story. Text incidentally that doesn’t match the headline. Doncaster haven’t slapped a price tag on Billy Sharp. He has not been valued at £3.25million, thats just a figure Southampton reportedly tabled for him. He’s apparently seen as a replacement for a striker Birmingham haven’t actually lost. And as for the opening sentence “Birmingham have enquired about Billy Sharp”. Have they? Really? How? And who to? What exactly would they enquire, they know who he is, what he does and that he is under contract at Rovers. This non-news, its guff, pure speculative guff, the sort of misinforming crap that perpetuates a newspaper which recently tried to link the death of a girl in n unfortunate accident a to the strike action being taken by her teachers. Its tedious, and increasingly there’s no escape from it.

Ordinarily its the love for the game that keeps me motivated enough to ignore the sensationalism and keep churning out the sort of stuff on here that was once deemed worthy of an award, and the label ‘high-brow’. But, in the off-season, there is no game. And at current a combination of personal circumstances and the increased cost of watching football means that when the game does return, its highly likely that I won’t be able to afford to watch it anyway. With that beacon dimming, my apathy for football has extended outwards to the sport at large and so I’ve decided to hang a Gone Fishin’ sign on the panelled oak doors of Viva Towers.

I’m not sure how long this break will last, hopefully not very long. I’m booked on the fun bus to Brighton so hopefully a ‘Looks Like We Made It’ backed Love In with the Albion fans will reawaken some enthusiasm. In the mean time may I suggest turning your attention to the much keener Vikingsbloggen site, a Rovers blog started last season by two or three Rovers fans. Its different in tone to Viva, but they’re independent and usually on the button so certainly deserving of your attention in the interim.

Viva Rovers Celebrates Two Years of Independence

Happy birthday to us, Happy birthday to us, Happy birthday Viva Rovers, Happy birthday to us. A huge cake in the shape of Leo Fortune-West has arrived at Viva Towers this morning, because the 15th July 2011 marks the two year anniversay of our relaunch as an independent website. Continue reading →

Launching the Transfer Rum-o-meter

“Will you be tweeting transfer rumours?” I was asked by a fellow Rovers fan via Twitter at the start of the month. Given that my only prior venture into transfer-related rumour-mongering had me offering deadline day tweets along the lines of “Rovers have finally netted a new striker. Sergei Rebrov spotted in Wickes on Leger Way looking at paint samples,” it wasn’t a question I expected to face. However, you don’t earn high website praise like “it actually looks like someone has made an effort” without giving the people what they want and so today I am happy to launch the Viva Rovers Transfer Rum-o-meter. Continue reading →

Happy Sir Francis Tierney Day

Has it really been eight years since we set off en masse for Stoke, a banner/bedsheet daubed with “Last one out of Donny, turn off the lights” flapping off the bridge on the M18 as we went? Just over ten thousand of us were there at the Britannia Stadium for the first ever Conference Play-Off Final; a fraught, stomach churning but ultimately joyous last 107 minutes of non-league football for the club. Continue reading →

Viva Popular Stand – New Ed on the Block

Dramatic news in the world of thirteen year-old football fanzines today as it was announced that Nathan Batchelor and Lucy Burke would be stepping down from their joint role as editor of the award-winning Popular Stand fanzine. The Popular Stand executive board have moved swiftly to announce a replacement for Batchelor and Burke, with Viva Rovers‘ Glen Wilson announced as the new editor of the long-running ‘zine. Continue reading →