Season 1933/34

Making a profit, surviving and not relocating to Doncaster!!

This was by far the worst season Rovers had experienced since joining the senior ranks.  Finishing rock bottom of the league and winning only 4 games in all competitions.  But not only that, and unlike previous years, the team was just not competitive in a large number of games.  The first half of the season took place against a background of a failed six month strike at Featherstone Main Colliery involving 1600 local men and boys.  Unsurprisingly attendances and gate receipts were down significantly from the previous season so the committee saw little alternative but to sell players to survive.  Billy Stott, Billy Hayes and Oliver Darlison were transferred to other clubs.  Whilst Rovers continued to recruit promising young players from the local junior clubs these players went straight into the first team with no opportunity to develop in the reserve team as the club couldn’t afford to run one.

In the circumstances Bert Lockwood did well at full-back, Johnny Malpass showed lots of promise and Allen Ward and Tom Dennis formed a new half back combination which improved performances at the back end of the season. In the pack Evans, Plenderleith and Luke Morgan were prominent.