When Rovers were last Christmas Number One...

With Doncaster Rovers knowing a win over Shrewsbury Town tonight will fire them to the top of the League One table for Christmas Day, here's a timely flashback to the last time a Rovers squad were in pole position during the festive season...

Doncaster Rovers 3-1 Swansea City

Nationwide Division Three

Friday 19th December 2003

Before a ball was even kicked in the 2003/04 campaign, if you listened to pundits and bookmakers alike then Doncaster Rovers were expected to be battling to avoid relegation.

Recently promoted back to the Football League after a 3-2 victory over Dagenham & Redbridge in the inaugural Football Conference (now National League) Play-Offs, Dave Penney's team were hardly expected to make any sort of impression.

Seven weeks into the new campaign and, despite an opening day success in the sunshine at Leyton Orient, the critics were being proven right as Donny found themselves languishing in the lower regions of the early-season Division Three table.

A sudden turnaround in fortunes, let alone a promotion push, seemed improbable but fast-forward three mesmerising months during which Rovers took an incredible 34 points from 13 games, and they went into this Friday night fixture with Swansea City knowing that a win would propel them to the summit for the first time all season.

It wasn't a convincing or vintage performance by any means - and those in read and white hoops were indebted to Andy Warrington who pulled off a superb diving save in the first minute to deny Andy Robinson, but in the end, they still had more than enough to send the Swans back to South Wales empty handed.

Michael McIndoe converted an 11th minute penalty infront of the Town End, awarded after Alan Tate was penalised for handball, to put Rovers on course for top spot before Paul Green made it 2-0 when he scooped a shot home from loanee JJ Melligan's right-sided cross.

Swansea gradually worked their way back into things with Robinson eventually on target with around a quarter-of-an-hour remaining but despite their incessant late pressure, Greg Blundell got the last goal of the evening in injury-time when he was put through by John Doolan and finished with aplomb.

Tina Turner's 'Simply The Best' never sounded better as the 6,500-strong crowd trudged out of Belle Vue afterwards because they knew Rovers were now perched at the top of the league.

Previous table-toppers Oxford United (whose only defeat up this point, incidentally, was a 2-0 reverse at Belle Vue - a result which sparked the revival), could only scrape a 1-1 draw at Huddersfield the following day which consequentially meant Rovers remained at the Division Three summit when the turkey was served up on Christmas Day.

And the festive Number One in 2003? 'Mad World' by Gary Jules; a song which resonates more than ever in the present day as the current Rovers team look to equal the efforts of those players in this era!