We're no one's biggest rival. But don't let any fan of Wednesday, Blades or Leeds claim they don't care about their results with us, because they bloody well do. Yes, they all have bigger fish to fry, and we're seen as nobodies in between the two big cities, but we beat them all regularly, and often give them a proper stuffing, so for the fans of these three teams, who all believe they're so much better than us, to be constantly reminded they're not, that gets under their skin. They pretend it doesn't, but it does. F***ing Barnsley we tend to be called.
I always got the feeling donny didnt like us at all the supporters of them ive spoke to the internet forums, the gloating on football heaven after they beat us. I think they hate rotherham more but i always got the feeling they hate us. Same with wednesday united and leeds they have bigger fish to fry but they love beating us and playing us. I used to work with leeds fans who would alway say them playing us at oakwell was our cup final etc etc and would never have it when i explained we got more home fans in our game against Wednesday. I remeber playing Chesterfield under wilson and johnson and losing both times there fans were celebrating asif they had won the league. Not really a rivalry barnsley v Chesterfield but they really enjoyed getting one over on us.
That's not the impression I've ever got from Donny fans who I know. They've always talked about Rotherham but we've barely even registered with them.
We don't often give them a proper stuffing though do we? We've played 29 games against those 3 in the last 10 years and won 5 of them with only one of them being by more than one goal. I do completely agree with your point though that they care, of course they do. They may not really think about us much when they aren't playing us but when those matchdays come round then we're a local rival with pride at stake.
My memory goes back a lot longer than 10 years. To be honest, I barely think of the last 10 years, it's the 30 before it when we were a proper team I was thinking about.
The Leeds Man Utd rivalry isn’t one sided years ago I went on a trip to Old Trafford for a stadium tour with some juniors from Durkar and all the guide talked about was Leeds and how nasty they were
When I used to listen to Football Heaven a few years ago there was a Donny fan called Dereck who used to be a regular caller & he was always trying to whip some kind of rivalry between us & Donny & also Viking chat gave us some right hammer when they thought they might take our place until Struber pulled off the great escape ,but personally I do not understand why they would want rivalry with us because when they dropped to the Conference I know a lot of reds fans who genuinely wanted them to get back in the league but when they did & they had a good few seasons they became all Billy Big Bo--ox & called themselves the Arsenal of the North , completely deluded & I do look for their result as I do all local clubs but unless we are playing them then they are totally insignificant in my book .
Oh they were nice enough people to work with in general, Indeed, one of them was a Union Officer colleague, they were just deluded about football rivalry (or not) as the case may be.
All I can say is that it must have been a time when they we were doing badly,when they're doing well they're insufferable...which is rare..however it's rare for us too.
Wigan seem to have some sort of hatred for us which is completely weird. They speak on twitter as though it was our faults they got relegated with the points deduction. They swear blind karma is on the way and we're over due it. Eh??? I used to quite enjoy Wigan in the prem but jesus wept, I've never known anything like it.
That seems to specifically stem from the celebrations at Brentford and that we should have been more "respectful" at full time rather than celebrate staying up due to their points deduction, as if they wouldn't have done the same. And then our supposed input at their appeal hearing which I'm not sure ever happened.
Even if we did any club in the same position would have attended to ensure that their position was being treated correctly it was them that dragged us into the appeal really. If the roles reversed do they really think Wigan wouldn’t have sent representation.