Don Your Way column: Doncaster a town full of Leeds fans? No thanks!

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past week, you won't have failed to notice what a furore the newly unveiled badge for Leeds United Football Club caused when it was shown off to the public for the first time.
Darren Burke - not a Leeds fan.Darren Burke - not a Leeds fan.
Darren Burke - not a Leeds fan.

Rather than being met with outpourings of delight from supporters, the club was forced to retreat over the somewhat naff and cringeworthy “Leeds Salute” crest, admitting they might have got it wrong when fans grumbled it had more resemblance to products for heartburn and indigestion rather than a Championship football club.

Meanwhile, social media went into meltdown as fans of all the other 91 Premier League and Football League teams guffawed heartily at the club’s spectularly lousy own goal.

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You may well be wondering what this has to do with Doncaster.

Well, to the unitiated, Doncaster is home to brigades of Leeds fans who badge themselves as Donny Whites.

Rather than support their home town team, these are supporters who’d rather decamp up the A1 to Elland Road rather than take in what’s on offer at the Keepmoat.

And that’s a concept that’s totally alien to me. I was born in Doncaster and have supported Rovers since my dad first took me to a game in 1981.

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For nearly 40 years now, I’ve been cheering on my team through the highs (of which there have been many in recent years) and lows (which, believe you me, far outweighed the good ones for several decades).

I’m proud to announce that both my sons have followed in my footsteps and wear their Rovers shirts with pride. Yes, they both dabble with the support of Premier League clubs (Chelsea and Tottenham seeing as you ask) but they aren’t afraid to show their allegiance to the viking badge and tell people that they are followers of Doncaster Rovers.

While I accept that the trophies and glamour of the big Premier League clubs are an irrestible draw to growing lads, it’s always to the Keepmoat they want to go for their fix of live football.

And not once have they ever wanted to go and see one of the other so-called “bigger” local clubs like Sheffield Wednesday, Sheffield United or the aforementioned Leeds to get their football fix.

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To me, as a football fan, your first port of call should always be your hometown club, no matter how bad they are.

I’m not going to pretend I didn’t occasionally go to other stadiums growing up and I too went through phases of offering my backing to other teams, some obvious (Liverpool in their heyday) and others not so (Norwich City).

But Doncaster Rovers were, and always have been my number one and always will be.

There’ll be no “Marching On Together” or “Leeds Saluting” (which indeed does look like someone dealing with a touch of indigestion) in this house as long as I live.