As i keep saying saylavee, IF we go up we all know it will be tough.
Most clubs that get promotion from L1 to the Championship find it hard, even so called big clubs like Sheff Weds.
There are some exceptions, notably Swansea of course, but they have a far bigger core fanbase than we will ever have.
What do they get from that? Income.
Look at the Championship table this year and every year, small clubs like Peterborough and Barnsley struggling away to survive.
As xon quite rightly pointed out last week, no businessman worth his salt would decline an opportunity to bring £9m into the club next year as a reward for gaining promotion despite whatever hardships they may have to face for doing it.
No way do the board want to avoid promotion.
Your comments about the "excuses" bandied about are all true but valid.
It will never be any different for the Rovers if we are in the Championship.
What is the alternative, stagnation in League One?

Exactly this last year we came away from West Ham with a creditable point and although we were still in trouble many supporters thought we had a chance of stopping up. Sadly our home form totally collapsed and it was a miserable experience for the club and supporters alike.

Finance and business plans aside, it's a natural response to try and achieve, whether it's avoiding relgation or striving for promotion. We learnt a lot and made mistakes the last time we were there but these experiences should put us in good stead if we do manage to achieve promotion. So let's make the most of our position and push for the final 9 games.

Even I am not saying we must avoid promotion because it will be disastrous I just think we should build a solid base in which we can achieve something like Swansea.Promotion means the resources go into survival and not building the foundations we need.

I too was there at the West Ham game and still can't work out how we never won that game. The next game I witnessed was the Millwall game at home and it was the worst performance I have witness in recent times.

Like the rest of us, I expect all of the Board members want promotion, otherwise what is the point of it all. I made this point last season through all of the "excuses".
Last time we went up, the club overspent £4m+, last season was similar. The Board are responsible for this, and if I was one of them, would find it very daunting. Most of the extra TV money will be automatically spent on players wages, especially if we bring in new ones, which will be suicidal if we don't.

I specifically mentioned Swansea because it is the best example of what can be achieved. We went up with them, we both had a reputation for playing "good" football and were very similar clubs, in terms of size and support. Until we tailed off towards the end of the season we had a good chance of finishing top.
The only difference was the management team, their's was able to take them on to the next level.

Other similar clubs, like Barnsley, Burnley and Blackpool made it to the Premiership, so it is not pie in the sky.
Perhaps we should become Boncaster Rovers!
(Some would say we already have that reputation as a town).

Swansea are and always have had abigger support base than us.
We have always had the distractions of Leeds and the Sheffield clubs to draw glory hunters away from little old Donny Rovers, a situation that doesnt apply to Swansea.
The only thing we had in common with Swansea was that we had managers with the same philosophy at the same time.

Well we have BF in common now

Nookie refering to BF,have you noticed that
B is the second letter in the alphabet
F is the sixth.
So BF numerically is 26.
Were doomed

It's a tough one. Happy though I am to see my club top of the heap, few have been the home games after which I have drifted home purring with pleasure. Would promotion be ruinous? It is hard to see how, unless the club's management team were to go berserk and spend far more money than staying in the Championship could ever be worth. With three of four next-level players on properly negotiated contracts we would stand a good chance of staying up, and were we to be relegated again we wouldn't be in worse shape than we are now. However with our last six games being against clubs lying 14th and above I won't be breaking out the sage and onion just yet.

Albi - have you had a look at our rivals last ten games.
They all have what i would deem to be tough games as well.
If you look at our next three games you would, on paper at least, say we should get nine points.
The thing is that those three opponents are all fighting for survival so it wont be any easier or harder than playing teams in the top half.
My celebration party food is also staying in the freezer for a while but i am in the same train of thought as Fuzzy - we will get promoted.

Lanza - how weird is that and i have to say that your obsession with all things 26 is just as weird.

hound is was born on the 27th july how lucky is that

has danny webber signed non contract basis.

Brentford V Swindon
Crewe V Sheff Utd
Stevenage V Bournemouth
Walsall V Tranmere
Yeovil V Crawley

1 Doncaster 37 17 68
2 Sheff Utd 36 21 65
3 Swindon 36 33 63
4 Tranmere 37 18 63
5 Yeovil 36 14 62
6 Brentford 36 12 61
7 Bournemouth 37 9 58

Some hard games tomorrow for some of our rivals, we could go 5/6pts clear if the results go for us. Well they have been good to us over last few weeks while we've been having a bit of a wobble

If Webber has signed Lanza i expect as big a furore as there was last week when Wilson signed on a non contract basis.

I see that one of our rivals, Yeovil, have made a big name signing.
Out of contract Ben Gordon, last seen in a Hull City resrve team shirt, has been signed to bolster their promotion push.
Before anyone says, ah but he is ex Chelsea, dont forget that Mark Wilson is ex Man Utd !!!
(I know the Man Utd thing is a difficult thing for Wilson to admit to ).
A very tongue in cheek remark from me here of course but if we had signed him i wonder what sort of reaction we would have got to signing a Hull City cast off?
It goes to show that League one teams have to cut their cloth in accordance with their income.
Well, except for Swindon and Pompey of course.

A pitch inspection has been called for 12:00 GMT ahead of Doncaster's home match against Carlisle in League One.

The inspection has been called after snowfall in the south Yorkshire area.

The club have also asked fans to help clear the stands of snow in exchange for a free ticket

Technically if Sheff U won their game in hand they would be top and we would be 2nd so the Automatic promotion for the top team statistically would be theirs - so we need to see there position after 37 games - If they win at Carlise they have the statistics behind them

Sheff Us next 4 games.
Crewe V Sheff Utd
Tue 12 Mar 19:45

Stevenage V Sheff Utd
Sat 16 Mar 15:00

Sheff Utd V Brentford
Sat 23 Mar 12:45

Tranmere V Sheff Utd
Fri 29 Mar 15:00

It could be a good month for us to pull away from them

I dont know when they play at Carlisle Meath but surely their 37th game is tomorrow at Crewe.

Be fair - Commentator said Colchester 5 times the other week when we played Crawley - Crewe, Crawley Colchester, Carlise a right bunch of C's

Good answer Meath, good answer.
BVZ - is them there chickens you is counting?

Hound

Due to our home form, I hope the fox has gone and got into another hen house

I hear that it has been sighted in Bournmouth over the last couple of weeks.
Hopefully it will find its way to Swindon soon.
Come on Basil.

Hound...no thanks, it can stay in Bournemouth! Incidentally we're pretty thin at the moment, new owners and the days when Canioman could bring in 12 new players to find 2 decent ones are a distant memory. Tough game for us at Brentford tonight, might give some indication of whether we'll stay the course.

Please tell me it has stopped snowing and the sun is shining in Doncaster, and we don't even really need a pitch inspection!