CAPTAIN’S TABLE: ‘Lifting the trophy with everyone involved, I’ll never forget it’ - Graeme Lee on JPT and the honour of skippering Doncaster Rovers

Few images will secure a captain’s place in the folklore of a club quite like lifting a trophy.
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For Graeme Lee, that image was of him hoisting the first major piece of silverware in Doncaster Rovers’ history.

The centre half skippered Rovers to victory in the 2007 Johnstone’s Paint Trophy final at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium - scoring the winning goal in extra time in the process.

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And it was an occasion that made as lasting an impression on Lee as it did the club’s history books.

Graeme Lee celebrates scoring Doncaster Rovers' late winner during the Johnstone's Paint Trophy final against Bristol RoversGraeme Lee celebrates scoring Doncaster Rovers' late winner during the Johnstone's Paint Trophy final against Bristol Rovers
Graeme Lee celebrates scoring Doncaster Rovers' late winner during the Johnstone's Paint Trophy final against Bristol Rovers

“The final itself was something I’ll never forget,” he told the Free Press.

“I keep trying to show my little lad it and he just says ‘all right dad.’

“It’ll live with me forever, and the family. It was a real proud moment.

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“To walk the team out, to win it, getting the winning goal and to lift the trophy as captain - for me it was one of the highlights of my career.”

Graeme LeeGraeme Lee
Graeme Lee

That winning goal came with ten minutes of extra remaining. Rovers had taken the lead against Bristol Rovers after only 49 seconds through Jonathan Forte before Paul Heffernan doubled the advantage on five minutes.

Bristol Rovers fought back with two second half goals but Rovers recovered to secure the win when Lee powered home a header in front of their travelling support.

“I can still remember everything about it,” the 41-year-old said.

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“Sean Thornton took the corner. As daft as it sounds, I never liked inswinging corners because I usually liked to attack them.

Graeme Lee leads Rovers out at Belle Vue for the final time before the move to the KeepmoatGraeme Lee leads Rovers out at Belle Vue for the final time before the move to the Keepmoat
Graeme Lee leads Rovers out at Belle Vue for the final time before the move to the Keepmoat

“But he put a good ball across, I just managed to back away from my man and get the header on it.

“I always remember celebrating and as we were, Paul Heffernan said to me ‘look at that’ and pointed to the fans.

“It felt as though everything stopped for about ten seconds. When I look at it it’s just a split second. It was an amazing feeling.

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“Lifting the trophy with all the lads and the staff involved, the fans all there - I’ll never forget it.”

Graeme Lee displays the Johnstone's Paint Trophy at the Mansion House in Doncaster along with fellow final goalscorers Jonathan Forte and Paul Heffernan.Graeme Lee displays the Johnstone's Paint Trophy at the Mansion House in Doncaster along with fellow final goalscorers Jonathan Forte and Paul Heffernan.
Graeme Lee displays the Johnstone's Paint Trophy at the Mansion House in Doncaster along with fellow final goalscorers Jonathan Forte and Paul Heffernan.

Lee joined Rovers in January 2006 from Sheffield Wednesday for £50,000. Within a matter of weeks he was handed the captaincy by boss Dave Penney.

“I came in during January and it was just after Steve Foster, who had been captain for a few years, left,” he said.

“After a couple of weeks Dave Penney made me captain.

“I think it was just one of them where he came in the changing room on the Saturday and I just got given the captain’s armband. You just go from there.

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“It’s an honour to be captain of one game never mind for the time that I was at the club.

“It means a lot because you’re got players who you look up to and who look up to you.

Rovers celebrate winning the Johnstone's Paint Trophy in CardiffRovers celebrate winning the Johnstone's Paint Trophy in Cardiff
Rovers celebrate winning the Johnstone's Paint Trophy in Cardiff

“You’ve got a big responsibility, making sure that you liaise with the players and management.

“As much as doing it on the pitch, it’s around the training ground where you need to organise and do things as well.

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“As a captain, it’s a great honour, especially with Doncaster at the time and the plans they had for the future.”

It was such plans that had attracted Lee to Rovers in the first place. Driven by John Ryan’s fierce and unwavering ambition for the club, Rovers were pushing for Championship football to feature in the brand new stadium that was under construction.

“The fact it was a club on the up was one of the factors of me signing,” Lee said.

“I knew the club, I knew the stadium was getting built and the progression that had been made in the year or so before.

“It was a good time to join.

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“When I went across to negotiate and speak, they took us across to the new site. I think there were a couple of stumps in the ground at the time.

“But you could tell the vision that they had and with what they’d done in the previous few years.

“It was a great period to be there.”

Rovers finished just outside the play-offs in Lee’s first season at the club. They followed up with the JP Trophy triumph and then embarked on the campaign which led to promotion to the Championship.

That final step was one Lee was forced to watch from the sidelines following a series of unfortunate injuries. It was a situation that saw a spell which had brought real highs, peter out.

“It was really frustrating,” he said.

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“I’d been suffering with ankle problems from Christmas but I was just getting through it, particularly with the run of the cup and trying to make the final.

“Once we realised we weren’t going to make the play-offs, I had the surgery to get myself ready for the next season.

“I came back probably the fittest I’d ever been, trained all summer but unfortunately I was doing some press-ups and got a click in my neck.

“I herniated a disc and it put me on eight weeks of complete rest. I came back from that and we felt just joining in training would be the best way to build my fitness up.

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“I tried to do a bit extra after the end of a session but did something with my knee. I was feeling a sharp pain in it. I tried to train through it for another week but then we realised I had a fracture within my kneecap. That was another four months.

“I was sat at home, frustrated. I couldn’t do anything or be part of anything and you feel like you’re distanced from it.

“The lads were having a hell of a season so that was just keeping me going, wanting to be involved.

“I got myself back, went on loan a couple of times but my knee was nowhere near and to be honest I probably shouldn’t have been playing.

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“I just wanted to be involved. I managed to get on the bench for the play-off semis but unfortunately I didn;t make the bench for the final.

“It was frustrating but the lads had such a hell of a season and I still enjoyed it, seeing the lads and the fans get promoted.

“It was a hard season and probably one of the lowest points of my career. But watching the lads achieve what they did, was still brilliant.”

That summer, with Rovers heading for the second tier for the first time in half a century, Lee joined Bradford City.

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A successful spell with Notts County followed, where he added a fourth promotion to his CV having done so with Wednesday and Hartlepool United earlier in his career.

His full time playing career ended back in his native north east with Darlington.

Currently, he is the lead coach for Middlesbrough’s U23s but has ambitions of moving into senior management.

“I’m loving the role,” he said.

“At some point I’d like to move into first team football but for now it’s about trying to get those lads as ready as I can for senior football.

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“I try to treat it as closely to first team football as I can so the lads are ready for it.”

The guiding hand Lee is now showing in his current role was developed during a career where the captain’s armband was worn more often than not.

And he is thankful for the time at Rovers, where he led a side firmly on an upward curve.

“Every club you play for you take it into your heart,” he said.

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“I had so many things I can look back on in my career and a lot of them were at Doncaster.

“To be captain of the club and take them from Belle Vue to the Keepmoat, winning their first ever major trophy and score the winning goal in the final, stuff like that was a massive part of my career.

“I look through the results every weekend and Doncaster is one of the ones I’ll look out for.“I’ll always hold Doncaster dearly in my heart.”