Blue Army column by Steve Pumfrey: Win warms frozen fans
Last night's trip to the Keepmoat Stadium was the third leg of a punishing schedule, which also took in trips to Bristol City and Plymouth.
The first scheduled meeting at Doncaster was called off at the end of December, but this time it went ahead after the hosts had appealed to their fans to turn up with shovels on Monday and clear snow that fell on the pitch over the weekend.
The snow returned throughout last night's contest and the Blue Army were quickly turning up the collars of their coats to keep out the biting wind as they made their way from coaches and cars.
Inside, the Keepmoat is another "flatpack stadium" like Cardiff, Swansea and MK Dons – but with more of the noise locked in.
Some City fans with long memories said it was a different experience to Donny's former home at Belle Vue, where they played for 84 years.
Away fans complained Belle Vue lacked atmosphere because it was open to the elements.
The away end at the Keepmoat holds around 3,300 spectators and more than 1,000 made the journey from Leicester and generated quite a noise.
They included Oliver Hawke, whose journey to south Yorkshire had an extra-special significance. The match at Doncaster completed all 92 Football League clubs visited by the City fan. "City played at Swansea and Cardiff at the start of the year which took me into the 90s and this one has done it," said Hawke.
City had never played out of the top two divisions until their Championship relegation in 2008 so some of the ground visits have been made by Hawke as a neutral.
He said: "I've been with mates to the likes of Rochdale and Darlington but it's good to have now done the 92. There was some doubt about the match at Doncaster and I might have struggled to get to another re-arrangement so I'm glad it's been played."
He certainly was. A great result for City. They had to batten down the hatches at times in a match that was a cracking advert for the Championship, despite the wintry conditions.
The 11,000 crowd kept the cold at bay with plenty of chants, mostly from the Leicester contingent, although the first song of the night was from the home fans as they chorused: "There's only one Richie Wellens", which confirmed what a popular player the City midfielder was during his two years at the Keepmoat.
City fans, by contrast, had a more recent arrival to cheer as Nolberto Solano made his first start and was the most prominent player early on with a delightfully-deft touch setting up Lloyd Dyer for the first clear chance of the night.
It was not long before the Blue Army sent a rush of warm air through the away end as they jumped up and down deliriously after Martyn Waghorn put City ahead after 12 minutes.
There were immediate cries of "There's only one Nigel Pearson," although the City boss watched the action from the dug-out during the match with assistant Craig Shakespeare in the technical area. You couldn't blame him with the cold. Drumbeats from the home end prompted a decent spell for the home side and, as half-time approached, the snow started to fall more heavily.
A surreal half-time interval show saw a Take That tribute band take to the pitch. They did a couple of the hits when Winter Wonderland would have been more appropriate.
It snowed even more after the break and was starting to settle on the pitch which left the City fans peering through the flakes. What they witnessed was a marvellous display from City keeper Chris Weale as he made a string of vital saves and little wonder he is already being tipped by fans as a possible player of the year, The cry "Wealo, Wealo" rang out in the away end.
City were under the cosh but they rode the wintry storm to send their fans home happy. Tired and happy, but unbeaten from their week on the road.
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