Labour of love for Ryan produces memorable moments for Rovers

FROM Dover to dreamland – John Ryan’s odyssey with Doncaster Rovers has been the sort of epic Hollywood directors look for in scripts.

The lifelong Rovers fan, brought up in a council house in the Doncaster suburb of Hexthorpe, managed to achieve what all supporters of their hometown club wish to do – step out and play for their boyhood heroes.

The next best thing, those not fortunate enough to reach that goal would say, is to own the club and be chairman.

Ryan has done that too – for 15 years all told ahead of his shock resignation last Saturday.

The latter months of his tenure may have been riven by boardroom tensions, but his medley of joyous memories with Rovers remains firmly intact.

Four promotions, two cup successes, a stadium move and glory days from Wembley, the Millennium Stadium and Britannia Stadium to Griffin Park, Deva Stadium and York Street.

Back in 1984, Ryan – five years before being made a director – made a number of predictions for the club. Most were realised under his stewardship.

Ryan’s autobiography was called Dare to Dream.

He turned his dreams into a reality, both for himself and thousands of success-starved Rovers fans.

He said: “I said back in 1984 I’d make a load of money and get Rovers where I wanted to see them. I made a lot of predictions and they all came true. I might be the only chairman to do that.

“I said we’d get to a cup final and get back to the Championship – and we did. I also said we’d get back into the league and get a new stadium – and we did.

“I always knew my time would come even before I became a director.”

Ryan was the equivalent of a knight in shining armour for Rovers fans when he and the Westferry consortium came to the stricken club’s aid in some dark days in the Spring of 1998.

A once proud club, blighted by the wretched final days of the Ken Richardson era, exited the Football League following a season from hell with a capital ‘H’ – with Ryan the club’s only realistic hope.

Ryan walked with hundreds of fellow Rovers fans as part of a mock funeral cortege to the club’s final game in the league at home to Colchester in May 1998, which saw a bugler play the Last Post.

The fear was that competitive football would die at Doncaster. But thanks to Ryan and the likes of Ian Snodin and Glyn Snodin, a club was reborn.

Ryan, made chairman at the start of the 1998-99 season by Westferry, who subsequently sold the club to him, said: “I walked behind the coffin for the Colchester game and thought it would be the last game ever for Rovers.

“Whatever people say about me, I saved Doncaster Rovers. It would never have succeeded without me. It might sound arrogant. But that’s the reality.

“The main stand had burned down, we had four players and the whole thing was a disaster. We had been relegated out of the Football League with a record low points total and with just four wins all season.

“I remember the following season we started with a 1-0 loss at Dover and celebrated. We thought that was quite good considering we had to pick players up on the motorway along the way.

“We borrowed and begged and I nearly got a game then because we hadn’t any numbers.

“Ian and Glynn Snodin did a sterling job to turn the club around and at the end of the season, we won the Conference League Cup, although we nearly went down to the Northern Premier League.

“But we gradually got better and better and in 2003, we had two glorious occasions. I remember Yeovil had won the league by a mile and we knew our play-off place was secure so I came on as a substitute at Hereford aged 52 years and 11 months.

“Then there was the day at the Britannia Stadium and Francis Tierney’s golden goal – one of the great occasions as we were promoted back to the Football League.

“The next year we won the league as 33-1 outsiders with York and Carlisle. They got relegated and we won the league.”

After consolidating in League One and almost reaching the semi-finals of the League Cup in 2005-06, Rovers made stylish strides the following season under Sean O’Driscoll, a seemingly left-field pick from Ryan to replace the man who brought them back to the Football League – Dave Penney.

It bore fruit not just in a Johnstone’s Paint Trophy success over Bristol Rovers in April 2007 and a promotion to the second tier for the first time since 1958 the following year against Leeds United at Wembley – but also in terms of what the club stood for as well.

They were able to produce an intoxicating blend of pure football which earned Rovers the moniker of ‘the Arsenal of the North.’

Their classy football earned them friends across the land, with Ryan’s infectious smile never far away.

Ryan added: “I brought in Sean and everyone criticised me like hell. But he brought a wonderful method and football to Doncaster Rovers.

“I remember In January I’d said it would be a Leeds versus Doncaster play-off final and we’d win 2-1. I got the scoreline wrong, but to say that in January was some prediction. Leeds weren’t playing just Doncaster Rovers, but fate.

“We then had four seasons in the Championship, which for a club our size was really good.

“It’s been hard toil and people don’t realise the thousands of hours I put into it and millions of pounds. Believe me, no matter what these other guys have put in, I’ve put more in. It’s been a labour of love. No one else would have done it, I’m sure.”