[Lord Snooty]

Huddersfield Town welcome Doncaster Rovers to the Nagle Arena on Tuesday night, the 10th of February, for the quarter final of this season's Vertu Trophy. It's easily the biggest game at the stadium since the visit of Carlisle United in 2011, a northern final second leg which we won 3-0, but lost 3-4 on aggregate. A massive crowd of 6,528 turned out that night, this one could almost challenge that attendance.

We beat Rovers earlier on in the season, 2-0 with goals from Ben Wiles and a Joe Taylor penalty. Those two should be influential in this match, Taylor in particular being our leading scorer in this season's tournament, but they may have difficulty from Milton Keynes and Wigan.

So who will be in the first Vertu team picked by Liam Manning? Surely Alfie May will get a run out to keep him match fit with another two games to miss in his 4 league match ban. A first start for Bobby Wales? Ryan Hardie on the bench? Can't wait! The excitement is now nearing fever pitch!




Doncaster Rovers in the EFL Trophy: Their first bit of success came in 1989/90 when they reached the Northern Final, as a 4th Division club, but lost 3-1 on aggregate to Tranmere Rovers.

They struggled to make any impact on the tournament and then eventually things got really bad and they were relegated to the Conference. This was at the time when a few selected clubs were invited into the tournament and Doncaster Rovers was one of them. In 2002/03 they reached the Northern Quarter Finals as a Conference club, but got spanked 8-0 by Crewe Alexandra at Gresty Road.

They did however get promoted through the Play Offs that season, with ex Town striker Paul Barnes (father of Newcastle's Harvey Barnes) as leading scorer. They then went and won the 4th Division title in the next season and three years after that they won the Johnstone Paints Trophy. Definitely on a upward curve now.

So that was the season 2006/07, their first season in the Keepmoat Stadium, after leaving Belle Vue half way through, with Dave Penney as manager. By the time they moved in and beat us in their opening game there, they'd already knocked us out in the first round of the Trophy. They then beat Hartlepool United, Accrington Stanley and Darlington, which set up the chance to avenge that 8-0 defeat with Crewe Alexandra being their Northen Final opponents.

That was a two legged topsy turvey tie with the lead swapping hands constantly. Donny went two-nil up away in the first leg through goals from Paul Heffernan and Brian Stock. They were level in the second half with current Wigan boss Ryan Lowe getting the equaliser. Heffernan then made it 3-2, but Luke Varney made it three all on the night, late on.

Varney and Lowe scored again in the second leg to put Crewe two goals to the good by half time in the second leg. Were Donny done? Not at all! It was Heffernan who brought them back into it in the 63rd minute and then equalising from the penalty spot in the 83rd. With the tie heading for a shoot out, Welshman Jason Price scored in the last minute of normal time to send the Rovers fans wild and book a trip to Cardiff for the Final.

Their opponents hadn't as far to go for the Final at the Millennium Stadium. Bristol Rovers had just beaten Bristol City by 1-0 on aggregate, so would've been on a high as they arrived. But it was the northern Rovers who started better, going 2-0 up in the first five minutes through Jonathan Forte and that man Heffernan.

It was 2-0 at half time, but the second half belonged to the Pirates, who scored twice to force extra time. It was still level at half time in extra time. Then with ten minutes to go, captain and centre back Graeme Lee scored the winner for the Yorkshire team in the last FLT Final to be played in Cardiff before moving to Wembley.

Since then, this is the furthest they've got in the tournament, equaling the quarter final they reached two years ago.




Northern Group C
Sep 2: Donny 2-1 Everton u21
Oct 7: Grimsby 0-3 Donny
Nov 11: Donny 3-1 Bradford

Round 2:
Dec 2: Donny 5-1 Chesterfield

Round 3:
Jan 13: Donny 3-1 Fleetwood


Northern Group F:
Sep 2: Town 6-2 Newcastle u21
Sep 30 Harrogate 1-0 Town
Nov 4: Town 3-1 Mansfield

Round 2:
Dec 2: Lincoln 0-2 Town

Round 3:
Jan 13: Town 3-0 Rotherham


Town Vertu scorers:
Joe Taylor (3)
Dion Charles (2)
Leo Castledine (1)
Marcus Harness (1)
Jack Whatmough (1)
Josh Feeney (1)
Murray Wallace (1)
Will Alves (1)
Lasse Sorensen (1)
Cameron Ashia (1)
Own Goal (1)

Rovers Vertu scorers:
Billy Sharp (5)
Brandon Hanlan (2)
Robbie Gotts (2)
Jordan Gibson (2)
Joe Sbarra (1)
Damola Ayaji (1)
Jack Senior (1)
Hakeeb Adelakun (1)
Own Goal (1)


Head to Head:
1989/90: Town 2-2 Donny
1992/93: Town 3-0 Donny
1993/94: Town 3-1 Donny
2006/07: Town 1-2 Donny
2024/25: Donny 2-1 Town