Sporting Bygones: Why United legend Bremner will always command a place in Doncaster folklore

The last time Doncaster Rovers visited Elland Road before Saturday’s encounter, they departed with all three points and left behind a touching tribute to Leeds United legend Billy Bremner.

For while Bremner will always, and rightly so, be remembered as the diminutive midfield enforcer who spent 17 years in some great Leeds teams, he also won many friends and admirers in two spells as manager at Doncaster.

The two clubs met in the Championship on Saturday, but it was their encounter in 2008 which will be fondly remembered by Rovers chairman John Ryan.

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Ryan – a Rovers director at the time – got to know Scottish international Bremner during their time at Belle Vue in the Eighties.

Neither could have forseen the troublesome times ahead for Doncaster as they fell into the Conference, while Leeds graced the Premier League and European Cup.

So their meeting in League One on January 19, 2008 was a touching moment for Ryan. It was another major step in Doncaster’s renaissance in footballing terms and it also gave the South Yorkshire club the chance to pay homage to one of its adopted sons who passed away in 1997.

United gave Ryan permission to wrap Rovers scarves around the Bremner statue, the memorial to the late Scotsman on the corner of Elland Road which provides an iconic welcome to Leeds’s stadium.

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“We went to Elland Road in the year of our promotion, we actually went to his statue and paid homage to Billy,” said Rovers chairman Ryan.

“Myself, a couple of directors and a few fans put Doncaster Rovers scarves around him. We had been given permission by Leeds United to do so on this one occasion.”

It proved to be a special season for the South Yorkshire club. Not only did they beat United on their own patch that afternoon, Brian Stock’s free-kick proving decisive, but the two sides were to meet in the League One play-off final at Wembley come May.

Leeds were overwhelming favourites but Sean O’Driscoll’s side caused a massive upset when James Hayter headed home the winner to clinch promotion to the Championship. United were to follow in their footsteps two years later by finishing second.

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Bremner, who finished his playing career at Belle Vue after a spell with Hull City, died from a heart attack two days before his 55th birthday at his Doncaster home in 1997.

It was his seven-year spell in charge at Rovers from 1978-85, including two promotion campaigns, which earned him a place in Doncaster history.

Under his management, Rovers were promoted to the Third Division in 1981 where they remained for two seasons and then again in 1984, before making

way for Dave Cusack. After returning to Leeds as manager for three years in the mid-Eighties, where he was edged out in the play-off final by Charlton Athletic and reached the FA Cup semi-finals before losing to eventual winners Coventry City, Bremner was back at Rovers for a second spell in 1989 but was unable to recreate his successful brand of football.

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That, however, failed to taint his status among Rovers supporters and Ryan, in particular. “Billy is held in great regard in Doncaster, he actually played a few times for Rovers in the twilight of his career,” said Ryan.

“You could see the wonderful skill he had even then, obviously he was getting on a bit.

“As manager, he did very well, especially in his first period. He gave us promotions on a couple of occasions.

“I met him a lot during his second spell as manager when I was a director at the club. He was very intense, very personable, very likeable, not a big-time Charlie sort of guy that he might have become due to his achievements in the game. A thoroughly nice sort of person, in some ways very, I would say, ordinary, but normal.

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“On the football pitch, of course, and in management to a degree he was acclaimed.”

After leaving Rovers in 1991 – Bremner’s last job in football – he went on to have a successful career as an after-dinner speaker and columnist, while watching his successor at Leeds, Howard Wilkinson, build on his work to gain promotion to the top flight before claiming their Division One title success in 1992.

While many fans will remember 5ft 5ins Bremner as a terrier on the pitch, Ryan says that was in stark contrast to the man off the pitch.

“He was a snarling type of player, but he wasn’t like that in real life.” said Ryan.

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“I’m sure he was at times as a manager, but certainly when I knew him, he wasn’t aggressive in any way. He seemed to change personalities when he crossed the white line.

“He was a little guy, always fighting the odds.”

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