Every fortnight we cover the best and worst football songs from every club in the UK from our book ‘The Sound Of Football: Every Club, Every Song’. You can buy it here

Doncaster Rovers

Nickname: The Rovers

Ground: Keepmoat Stadium

Stadium Capacity: 15,231

Song: Walking Out Of The Darkness

In 1991/92, FA Women’s Premier League side Doncaster Rovers Belles won the Women’s FA Cup and the national woman’s league without losing a single game. The men’s side (who should really be Doncaster Rovers Beaus) cannot boast of similar success – it’s never won the top division, the FA Cup, or remained unbeaten throughout an entire season.

While this has meant that the men’s side has never had the opportunity to release an FA Cup final song, the Belles did, recording ‘Northern Pride’, the first ever female FA Cup song in 1992.

‘Northern Pride’ is not the only musical achievement from Doncaster. In August 2013, former One Direction star Louis Tomlinson fulfilled a childhood dream by ‘signing’ for the team as a non-contract player. However, having US number one hit singles doesn’t guarantee Rovers will play any of One Direction’s song. The team already had a fan with an American number one song. Rovers fan John Parr is better known as a singer songwriter whose greatest hit was the 1985 US number one single ‘St Elmos Fire (Man in Motion)’.

The song ‘St. Elmo’s Fire (Man in Motion)’ appeared on the soundtrack of the film of the same name. But it was not inspired by the film, instead the song tells the story of Canadian athlete Rick Hansen.

Rick was 15 when he was paralysed from the waist down. After he was injured he excelled at wheelchair sports, especially long distance races, winning 19 international wheelchair marathons. To raise money for spinal injury research Rick set out to circle the world in his wheelchair. It was a journey of 26-months and 40,000 km through 34 countries and he successfully raised $26 million. The lyrics in the song reflect his journey.

Despite the success of the song, it never appeared on a John Parr album, only on the official film soundtrack. Another song which doesn’t feature on any of his official albums is ‘Walking Out Of Darkness’, which he recorded especially for Doncaster Rovers. Unlike ‘St Elmo’s Fire (Man in Motion)’, ‘Walking Out Of Darkness’ has never been number one in the US charts.

John was inspired to write the song when Doncaster Rovers reached the final of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy in 2007. He wanted to tell the story of the club and how it had transformed itself. Only a few years earlier, Doncaster Rovers had almost been relegated from the conference league but had now reached a final and built a brand new stadium. It too has walked out of the darkness…

The B-side to the song is called ‘Dream On’ and is a tribute to Doncaster Rover’s greatest player – Alick Jeffrey.

Alick was a young player who was described by Jackie Milburn, the former Newcastle United and England forward, as: “This boy has everything. He is by far the best youngster I have ever seen“. Unfortunately, a bad leg break in an England international game when he was 17 curtailed his talent. He went onto play for Rovers but never reached the heights of the game that he should have. The street next to the stadium is named in his honour – Alick Jeffrey Way.

‘Walking Out Of The Darkness’ is played at every home game when the team walks out. Ironically, the tunnel is very well lit.

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