Away On Saturday: D-Day at Whaddon Road (2008)

Cheltenham Town 2-1 Doncaster Rovers

Coca-Cola League One

Saturday 3rd May 2008

Rovers fans in the away end at Whaddon Road (Photo: Unknown).

It's Saturday 3rd May 2008. Josef Fritzl's face is all over the newspapers, Boris Johnson has just become the Mayor of London, whilst Brazilian superstar Ronaldo is in an awkward situation after being caught with three cross-dressing prostitutes.

In the sporting world, this was the day Doncaster Rovers were meant to complete John Ryan's lifelong ambition of taking the club all the way to the Championship but instead it ended in heartbreaking dejection, disappointment and pure agony.

It did, nevertheless, pave the way for an even more incredible showdown at Wembley with Leeds United just a couple of weeks later!

The final league fixture of what had been a roller-coaster 2007/08 season saw Sean O'Driscoll's men travel to relegation-threatened Cheltenham Town, knowing that a win would secure promotion to the second tier of English football for the first time in 50 years.

Rovers had leapfrogged Carlisle United into an automatic promotion spot in League One the previous Saturday and there was a jubilant buzz of excitement, nerves, anticipation and 'big game' tension surrounding this decider at Whaddon Road. It certainly wasn't ever going to be easy because Cheltenham themselves desperately needed to win to avoid relegation - their destiny also being in their own hands!

There was an outside, albeit unlikely, possibility that results could go favourably and both teams could achieve their ambitions though the likelihood was one side, if not both, would suffer final day heartache and plenty of fingernails were chewed frantically amongst the 6,787 crowd as the afternoon progressed.

With all the build-up and fanfare out of the way and with TV cameras capturing John Ryan's rousing attempts to rally the 2,000+ Doncaster fans in the jam-packed, sold-out away end, the Whaddon Road pitch was bathed in glorious sunshine as kick-off arrived; this was it now for both sets of players - it was time to become a hero and there was absolutely no turning back!

Despite their lowly status, Cheltenham set the early tempo as Rovers looked surprisingly sluggish in their blue and white hooped away strip, struggling to string two passes together.

News quickly filtered through that Nottingham Forest were very much in command in their game against Yeovil Town which consequentially meant Donny had to win to get promoted - there was simply no margin for error available if that game stayed the same.

However, on 24 minutes the worst possible nightmare came true as Cheltenham drew first blood as Steven Gillespie danced his way through the defence before prodding a low shot past Neil Sullivan which crept into the net at the far-post. Rovers fans directly behind the goal were stunned into sheer silence, pondering the disaster which was unfolding before their eyes, and the sombre mood had barely changed by the half-time whistle as O'Driscoll's men remained thoroughly frustrated in their attempts to build up a meaningful head of steam.

Character, guts and passion was needed and with both teams now attacking towards their own fans, noise levels in the away end went up a few decibels as the 'now or never' second half got underway.

Rovers responded with a dominant showing. Nerves which were previously evident appeared to have vanished as they laid onslaught to Cheltenham's goal, but Shane Higgs seemed a formidable figure between the posts as he palmed shots away time and again.

Brian Stock, Matt Mills and Mark McCammon had all gone agonisingly close to an equaliser before one finally arrived with a quarter-of-an-hour remaining when Jason Price nodded down a cross into Paul Green's path who smashed it emphatically into the back of the net to provoke wild roars fuelled on hope and belief.

1-1. Game On! 15 minutes to go...

With Nottingham Forest still winning at the City Ground (albeit by just one goal) and Cheltenham knowing they could ill-afford to concede again - if they did they would be relegated. The tension around Whaddon Road was suddenly scaling new heights and it was little surprise that Rovers continued to lay siege in their search for a winner, with momentum firmly in their favour.

A turnaround almost happened as a quick and clever swivel by Price, when the Robins defence was stretched apart, culminated with his attempt trickling back off the post before the was scrambled away to safety.

A hero was needed... and on 85 minutes, one was found!

Cheltenham's attacking threat had barely been lukewarm during the second half as they'd been on the back foot so much but Paul Connor was in the right place at the right moment to get on the end of a stab-shot into the danger zone and knock the ball past Sullivan to make it 2-1.

The Robins were staying up and the dreams of a Doncaster Rovers promotion party had been extinguished in an instant.

As Cheltenham's fans, players and manager Keith Downing celebrated the success of their 'Great Escape' in a great huddle together at the final whistle, the mood at the opposite end of the ground was once again sombre with lots of supporters in despair, thinking about what might have been and how the outcome could have been very different!

Would Donny ever get this close to promotion again or would they remain out of the second-tier forever after the ultimate heartache of this game? Had the team blown their best ever chance to go up? What exactly would the future hold now? Nobody had thought about this outcome!

There was of course still the League One Play-Offs to look forward to... but that's another story!