ACROSS the entire spectrum of sport unease festers as the realisation grows that the credit crunch will not pass by cricket, racing, tennis, rugby, golf, even almighty football; that grim times lie ahead. For John Buckley and Doncaster Belles they have been around for some time.

Buckley, who played with Doncaster Rovers, Leeds United and Rotherham among others in a 350-game Football League career, has been part-time manager of the Belles since 2002, fitting in his club duties alongside a full-time football coaching business with another former pro, Paul Green, who doubles as his assistant with the Belles.

The past six months have been a revelation to Buckley, Green, Belles' chairman Jonathan James and treasurer Kevin Harrison as they have struggled to keep the Belles – Doncaster Rovers Belles Ladies FC to give them their Sunday name – alive following the loss of their sponsor.

Finishing in the top four of the FA Tesco Women's Premier League and ensuring the club is still in existence next year for its 40th anniversary are their objectives.

Founded in 1969 by lottery ticket sellers at Doncaster Rovers' old Belle Vue ground – hence the Belles – the South Yorkshire club is one of only two from outside London to have won the Premier League championship and have won the FA Women's Cup on six of the 13 times they have reached the final.

Ask any football follower in Yorkshire to name a women's team and they will immediately respond: "The Belles". Yet even with such a pedigree, it appeared early in September that the Belles were in grave danger of folding. News of their predicament came, with supreme irony, on the day they were to play the best women's team in England – Arsenal – in London. They lost 6-1.

For the previous four seasons the Belles, whose £65,000-a-season running costs – which mainly go in playing players' travelling expenses – had enjoyed good sponsorship. "Ben Bailey Homes had a three-year deal and were magnificent," he says. "Richard Bailey and Paul Russell did not just give us financial support, they were always on hand with advice and encouragement."

They were followed by a one-year deal from pop band Silverfall. Since then the club has been run on a hand-to-mouth basis, with Buckley, Green, James and Harrison dipping into their pockets to keep the show on
the road.

But that could not go on. "We just could not afford it," says Buckley. "I'm just an ordinary guy; I'm not skint but I need a job. I don't mind being £2,000 down for a while, if I know I'm going to get it back and the others are the same. You have to draw a line somewhere."

When that line was drawn, the Belles had to appeal to the goodwill of the population of Doncaster. The response was amazing, says Buckley. "The people in the town have
been brilliant."

Despite the recession taking a grip, that response has ensured the Belles will survive – for now. Inevitably, some businessmen had to answer the plea for help with: "Sorry, Bucky, I know £1,000 does not sound a lot, but it is when you are laying people off. That £1,000 could keep a man in a job for a month."

Bucket collections at Doncaster Rovers' home fixtures have been well-supported, and a group of players spent 90 minutes on Town Moor on the Friday of the St Leger Festival with racegoers chipping in £1,900. A small electrical company weighed in with £2,000, the RAOB came up with £400, branches of the Doncaster Rovers Supporters' Club donated almost £3,000, Doncaster College and the Town Council each gave £5,000.

"My father-in-law, Alan Williams, gave us £200, people even turned up at my door with money," says Buckley. "Two pubs had collections for us, someone at Irwin Mitchell's solicitors in Sheffield rang me when he
heard of our problems and offered to pay for our bus to the Arsenal game.

"What has struck me most during all this is that people with lots of money are nowhere near as generous as those who are not so well-off."

Support has come, too, from Doncaster Rovers chief executive Dave Morris, while Gavin Baldwin at the Keepmoat Stadium has done everything in his power to help.

"We haven't been sitting on our backsides and complaining either," insists Buckley. "One of the things we have put in place is Target 2000, which we hope will bring in useful income. We want 2,000 people to donate £2 per month – 50p a week, what's that, a packet of crisps? – by standing order. So far, I have to say, Rovers fans have been more forthcoming than our girls."

Now Buckley is hoping that financial security for the rest of the season will be completed by a match between the present Doncaster Rovers team and a Doncaster Legends XI made up of players who took the club from the Conference back into the Football League and on
their way to their present position in the second tier of English football.

The game will be played at the Keepmoat on October 12 (2.30pm kick-off) and admission will be £5 for adults and £2.50 for children; entrance to the Belles' match on an adjacent pitch immediately before the big game will be free. "If we can get 3,000 there we would raise £15,000, which would be marvellous," says Buckley.

But he is well aware that next season offers more than just an opportunity to celebrate 40 years of Doncaster Belles. From 2009 the Women's Premier League will be reduced to just eight clubs, and a meeting at Aston Villa's ground tomorrow will set the parameters for would-be members.

"Ideally, we would like to have a sponsor for the next three years lined up before we go to that meeting," said Buckley. "We have spoken to one man who has been successful in the computer business. He might be prepared to back us if he can turn the Belles into a commercial product with a long-term vision. We have also been approached by a bingo club."

If agreement could be reached, Buckley and Green would be delighted to get back to the day job, without the endless round of meetings and waving of begging bowls.

For players like full-back Chelsea Weston, at 18 a member of England's Under-23 shadow squad, a more solid situation is crucial. She lives in Worcester, and the cost of her petrol in getting to Doncaster to train once a week is around £60. Other players travel from as far away as Liverpool and Newcastle and, travelling expenses apart, the only reward they receive for playing for the Belles is a £25-a-head bonus for winning.

On the field things are looking bright for the team, although Buckley accepts that Arsenal are "in a different league".

"Everything about them is just so professional, even their programme," he says. "Their players work for the club at the academy or whatever, and they have quality in every position. When you are playing them and they make a few changes you see two or three internationals coming off the bench."

But he has been pleased with the way his team has developed. "There's a cracking spirit in the dressing room," he says. "The new girls who have come in this season have fitted in superbly, and we have had some excellent results in the league as well as reaching the last eight of the Cup with Nottingham Forest to come in the next round. With Arsenal playing Everton, who are perhaps the only team that could match them on a good day, one top team is sure to go out. That could open the door for us.

"Our difficulty is in getting people through the gate to watch. The women's game is massive in the United States, Australia and New Zealand, and it has really taken off in the schools here, overtaking hockey and netball as the game of choice. Somehow we need to attract more people to watch us."

Lack of support through the turnstiles apart, for Buckley, one negative aspect of the battle for survival has been the way other clubs have "tapped up" some of his players. "They have tried to kick us while we were down," he says.

On the way down they might have been, but Doncaster Rovers Belles are now on the up. If they can somehow defy the recession and find the backing to earn in a place in the new Premier League, they will be able to look forward to another 40 years.

You can't accuse them of leaving stones unturned: they have made a not-altogether-frivolous request for support to Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nayan, the billionaire from Abu Dhabi who has just taken control of Manchester City. They know he's one man who will be unaffected by the credit crunch – and the £65,000 they need will be a drop in a bucket to him.

They await a reply.