Stat Attack: Doncaster Rovers vs. Notts County

Notts County have met Doncaster Rovers 51 times over the years, with the first fixture coming on the 13th December 1930. On that occasion, an FA Cup tie, the Magpies triumphed 1-0.

Rovers have the upper edge head-to-head, but only just. They have 23 wins and 21 defeats against Notts, with seven draws.

Our last meeting came at the tail end of the 2012-13 season, when Notts secured a 1-0 victory at the Keepmoat courtesy of this rather decent effort by Joss Labadie...

/>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjd42giwT8s

The club was founded in 1879 and turned professional in 1885. They have spent the majority of their playing history between the third and fourth tiers of the English football league system and are one of four clubs to win the Division 3/League Two title three times, the last being in 2004. Football League rules state that any team who wins a trophy three times can keep it.

However, when Rovers tried to retain ownership of the actual Third Division trophy, the Football League claimed that Rovers could not keep the trophy because the league names had changed from Fourth to Third Division, and so they had not won that particular league three times. Bit harsh...

The team's mascot is a brown dog known as Donny Dog, who wears the red and white Rovers jersey.

Before a scheduled appearance during the game against Huddersfield Town at the Galpharm Stadium on 4 March 2006, police prevented Andrew Liney from entering the stadium in costume, citing unspecified "police intelligence", and refused him permission to wear any part of the costume within 50 metres of the stadium. Mr Liney later received a full written apology for these unfounded allegations from the head of West Yorkshire Police.

The mascot was next portrayed by Tracy Chandler and in June 2011, she was relieved from the position after she posed in her underwear for a Sunday newspaper. Later in the same week she was reinstated back as the clubs mascot.

Arguably the club's most famous fan is One Direction singer Louis Tomlinson. The 22-year-old had agreed to play in a charity game at the Keepmoat to raise money for the Bluebell Wood Charity and was offered a deal by Donny to join the club on non-contract terms after impressing in the game.

Tomlinson also put himself forward to take over the club alongside John Ryan, but the deal fell through in July this year.

And if you're not the biggest fan of 1D or Louis, then you can always take a moment to enjoy this...

/>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZrIq-CqVSo

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Doncaster will be without Nathan Tyson, who has missed the last two matches with a calf strain.

Dean Furman, Harry Forrester and Marc De Val Fernandez are among the options should manager Paul Dickov decide to shuffle his pack for the quarter-final clash.

Meanwhile, Notts have almost a fully fit squad for their trip to the Keepmoat Stadium, with only long-term injury victim Jimmy Spencer out as far as we're aware.