3rd Round Proper – Doncaster Rovers FC V Stevenage FC

As you can see from the above map, the Giant Killing Adventure is travelling 133 miles north from the Lamex Stadium in Stevenage to Keepmoat Stadium in Doncaster.  Doncaster is located in South Yorkshire and is 20 miles north east of Sheffield.

I was informed by Bev Rogerson on New Year’s Eve that I will never be getting the unprofessional photographs from the very first game of this blog as they have been accidently deleted from her computer - she blamed her boyfriend and of course he blamed her.  So our blog viewers will never get them and Bev informed me that she had chosen the most attractive player and taken a shot of him (I guess we’ll never know). This is of course blatant sexism and like many females I know she just sees men as pieces of meat! 

 

Now it is the 3rd Round Proper of the FA Cup 2013/14 – all teams have now entered, including the Championship and the Premiership big boys.  No more teams will be entered from this stage on as our river grows from grass roots football in which players have two jobs to players earning in excess of £100,000 a week. Unlike my opening fixture there will probably be more than 58 fans at these games as the interest in the FA Cup grows. 

Our winner Stevenage FC from the 2nd Round Proper has drawn an away tie against Doncaster Rovers FC. 64 teams will fight it out during this round.   

V

Doncaster Rovers FC were formed out of Doncaster’s great northern railway works in 1879.  The club has mainly played in the lower divisions and was promoted to the championship last year for the 2013-14 season.    

The Keepmoat Stadium above is a multi-use stadium that was opened in December 2006.  The stadium cost £20 Million to build and the first game to be played was actually a Rugby League game between Doncaster and Sheffield. The Official opening of the stadium came 9 months later in August 2007 in which Doncaster played a friendly against a Manchester United X1.

Doncaster are currently in the relegation zone of the Championship. They have 21 pts from 24 games and are in 22^nd position. This is their first game in the 2013/14 FA Cup.

Stevenage play in the Sky Bet League One which is 1 league lower than Doncaster Rovers FC.  Stevenage FC are currently bottom of the league with 19 points from 23 games.  Previously in the FA Cup they beat Portsmouth at home 2-1 and then knocked out Stourbridge at home 4-0 in their Giant Killing Adventure debut.   

In other news:-

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I have had five unsuccessful dates after the 3rd Stourbridge game on 9^th November, so the search continues. 

Our FA Cup journey has travelled 1032 miles in nine rounds from its current home in Wigan to Doncaster via Ashton, Curzon, Crosby, Curzon, Lancaster, Stourbridge, Workington, Stourbridge and Stevenage.  

Tomorrows Blog guest will be Tim Webster again and he will be making his third appearance in The Giant Killing Adventure (he witnessed Curzon Ashton draw 0-0 with Lancaster City FC in the 2^nd Qualifying Round and the Stevenage victory in the previous round).  We now wait for Saturday 4^th January 2014 – 1 sleep way, it’s a new year and it’s all good.