Wembley Flashback: When Doncaster Rovers lived the dream against Leeds United

Five months before the Elland Road club did battle with Doncaster Rovers under the Wembley Arch, John Ryan, the club’s chairman, had informed The Yorkshire Post about his premonition.

Not only were the two clubs set to meet in the League One play-off final but Rovers would triumph by a one-goal margin.

When Ryan’s bold prediction duly appeared in these pages the following morning, there was much scoffing in some quarters. Come May 25, 2008, however, he had been proved right in the most glorious of fashions.

“Through my life, I have had moments of inspiration and predicting to The Yorkshire Post a Donny-Leeds final and us winning was one of those,” says the former Doncaster chief about an afternoon when James Hayter netted the only goal of what, at that time, was the only all-Yorkshire play-off final.

“The only thing I got wrong, from memory, was the score. I said ‘2-1’. It was just a feeling I had. We were both going for automatic promotion at the time.

“We might have got it but for an inspired goalkeeper at Cheltenham (on the final day, as Rovers blew second place by losing 2-1). But, in a way, I am glad we didn’t as that would have meant missing out on what was, to me, the crowning glory of my years with Doncaster Rovers.

“There were other promotions, including another to the Championship on an incredible day at Brentford (in 2013). But winning at Wembley against a club like Leeds to go back to a level we had last been at 50 years earlier, well that was what dreams are made of.”

Ryan’s dreams may have come true but, for Leeds, defeat under the Arch was a nightmare end to what had been, up to that point, a remarkable campaign.

Having kicked off in August well adrift of their 23 peers courtesy of a 15-point deduction for failing to follow the Football League’s insolvency policy when exiting administration, United wiped out the deficit inside five games.

By the final Saturday in October, Dennis Wise’s side were in the play-off places.

Wise’s exit early in 2008, coming on the back of influential assistant Gus Poyet having earlier left for Tottenham Hotspur, disrupted Leeds but, still, the club claimed fifth place.

Without that points deduction, automatic promotion would have been their prize at the end of a season that brought 27 wins and only nine defeats.

“It is a shame that we couldn’t do it because it was a special year and a special group of players,” said David Prutton, who made 46 appearances for Leeds that term. “A lot are still very good friends.

“The season that took a lot out of us, in terms of the 15 points and how we had to battle through as a team that was put together in pre-season with a shared experience of being at a wonderful, ginormous, statuesque club that was on its knees.”

Leeds beat Carlisle United in the semi-finals thanks to a dramatic last-minute strike from Jonny Howson, while Doncaster made light work of Southend United to set up an all-Yorkshire showdown.

“The game was a good one,” recalls Ryan, who had rescued the club from rock bottom a decade earlier following the disastrous reign of Ken Richardson.

“We should have been two or three goals in front by half-time. In fact, it was the only time all day that I was worried.

“I thought: ‘Maybe this just isn’t going to be our day and Leeds are going to nick it’. Thankfully, we scored a minute or so into the second half with a goal worthy of winning any Cup final – and that is what this was, a Cup final.

“Historically, Leeds have been the best team in Yorkshire. Doncaster also has had a lot of Leeds supporters living there over the years.

“So, that made winning at Wembley extra special. To go from where we had been when I took over, when the club couldn’t sink any lower, to playing in front of almost 80,000 at Wembley 10 years later, it took some believing. But we did it.

“Genuinely, it was a day when dreams came true for all of us at Doncaster Rovers as winning at Wembley put the club back on the map.”