It’s been a long old month or so at Rovers; disappointing defeats, frustrating draws, injuries to key players. But just as you may’ve been about to lose hope Tuesday came with some welcome cheer. Yep, issue 99 of popular STAND fanzine had been successfully sent off to the printers. Oh, and Rovers beat Bristol Rovers 4-1. Again.
Got a bit of a temperature? Find yourself inexplicably desperate to be in a hat? Can’t go outside without being hit in the head by a form book tossed from nextdoor’s bedroom? Yep, I’m afraid you’ve got Cup Fever, and the only known cure is to get yourself down to the Keepmoat Stadium for Rovers’ twenty-third consecutive FA Cup tie with Oldham. And good news, whilst you’re there you can get your hands on the latest issue of the double-award-winning popular STAND fanzine.
Are you hanging up your stocking on the wall? Course you’re not. It’s 2018. And we all live in rented accommodation as we can’t afford to buy houses, so if we did hang a stocking on the wall we’d only be lumbered with a ‘stocking damage fee’ from our letting agent. Still, it is nearly Christmas, and have we got the perfect present for you? No, no we haven’t. That was intended to be rhetorical to be honest. But we have got a new issue of popular STAND fanzine on sale, so at least that’s something.
I’m writing this editorial on the day of FIFA’s annual The Best Football Awards. Ordinarily I’d be oblivious to this; not today. But that’s only because they happen to be taking place at my workplace. Right now, as I look out of the office window, tuxedoed men I don’t recognise are being ushered towards a row of photographers, a line of glamorous young women in shiny frocks are being used as window dressing on a staircase, blokes in hi-vis vests are keeping tourists behind distant barriers and an invisible man on a microphone is encouraging anyone who can hear him to ‘get ready to make some noise for Joachim Low’. Continue reading “Editorial: On being thankful for being far removed from FIFA”
Remember the last time we put an issue of popular STAND fanzine on sale back at the start of the season? If you missed issue 95, it was essentially forty pages of people being decidedly unenthusiastic about the football ahead, trying to justify their attendance, and generally fearing the worst. What a bloody difference two months can make. Continue reading “popular STAND fanzine issue 96”
Is it really a new season, without a bloke standing under a statue with a bag of paper at his feet, cursing the ice-cream van that’s parked up on his patch? Course it isn’t, so whilst we might’ve all had a lovely time at the Southend seaside, we all know things don’t get properly underway until this Saturday, when you get to turn back the cover on an August edition of popular STAND fanzine. Continue reading “popular STAND fanzine issue 95”
Yep. Another fanzine. Already. Less than a month after our 20th birthday issue we’re back again with the difficult follow-up edition, popular STAND fanzine number 94. The perfect accompaniment to the afternoon, and something to read during those quiet moments, you know, like Rovers attacks. Continue reading “popular STAND fanzine issue 94”
The internet was supposed to stop this from happening. The immediacy of messageboards and social media were supposed to kill us off. Yet, somehow, in an age that revolves around screens, our paper fanzine has soldiered on and made it to this remarkable point; issue 93 – our twentieth birthday. Continue reading “popular STAND fanzine issue 93”
New year, new start? Not as far as we’re concerned, so get set for the same old fanzine, at the same old price as issue 92 of popular STAND goes on sale at Doncaster Rovers’ home match with Plymouth Argyle, this Saturday. Continue reading “popular STAND fanzine issue 92”
It’s not a particularly funny issue of popular STAND fanzine, this one. It has its moments don’t get me wrong, and I don’t want to discredit those who’ve submitted lighter pieces, but I feel it’s only fair to call it up front. You’re good people, you deserve honesty, and likewise I deserve a break from the inevitable ‘it’s-not-as-funny-as-it-used-to-be’s that greet any request for feedback. It’s still good though, so don’t even think about asking for your pound back. You’ve committed now, roll with it. Continue reading “Editorial: We need to stop relying on football to get us through”
popular STAND fanzine 