For the first time all 16 teams in the Doncaster Senior League were placed in one division for season 2015/16, The Open Division, with all teams playing each other once in a competition for the first half of the season. This meant that teams played 15 games meaning that for some the fixture list gave 8 home games and 7 away while the Academy got opposite that with 7 home and 8 away. To further complicate matters any game postponed where neither club was at fault, ie weather, then the game was not rescheduled and neither team received any points.

September: The Academy side started the campaign full of optimism however they suffered an opening day 5-1 defeat at Champions Sutton Rovers before following that with a 6-4 home defeat by Hemsworth Elite with Reggie Kelly getting 3 in a season hatful of goals, in between those 2 games they also had to concede a game with the points given to Dunscroft United when they failed to raise a side. Another heavy defeat followed at Yorkshire Main, this time by 6-2 with another 2 from Kelly though how this game didn’t finish about 10 each after some woeful finishing by strikers from both sides is anybody’s guess.

October: United gave out a heavy beating of their own in beating Balby Recreational 9-1 with Kelly getting another 3 to take his tally for the season to 8 and even player manager Carl Haines got his name on the score sheet. If the team thought that result might be the launchpad for better things they were mistake as the side suffered 3 successive defeats to Doncaster Deaf Trust (6-3) Kinsley Boys (5-1) and South Elmsall United Services ((5-4) though they stopped the rot as the month drew to a close in drawing 2-2 at Brodsworth Welfare though during that spell Reggie Kelly kept his scoring record going with another 6. The solitary win and one draw gave the team 4 points from their opening 9 games to leave them languishing 4th bottom and though scoring goals was not a problem (26 scored) it was letting them in at the other end (36 conceded) that was the problem.

November: The team fared no better autumn came with home defeats of 6-2 & 9-3 to Armthorpe Markham Main and Rossington Main respectively though sandwiched between those 2 games was a 2-2 draw at Doncaster Town, yet again the team were indebted to Reggie Kelly as he scored another 4 goals to take his tally to 12 for the season.

December: As the cold weather began to bite the moth became a write off as far as football was concerned, the team gained a win when Bridon were unable to raise a side but 2 other games fell victim to the weather. This meant that the first half of the season was complete with the gaining a paltry 8 points from the 15 games leaving the side 3rd bottom of the Open Division and with the split of the league into a Premier and Division 1 they were placed in Division 1.

January: The first game of 2016 brought about a local derby with a difference in the first round of the Doncaster FA Challenge Cup with the Academy side draw against the Denaby United First Team. Unfortunatley there was to be no giant killing as the Academy were well beaten 5-1 by the club’s senior side though the team did put up a good show for the first 30 minutes. Placed in the new Division 1 the team produced 2 victories and a defeat in their 3 league fixtures as the new year promised a better campaign. Bridon were beaten 3-0 at Old Road while Doncaster Town were thumped 9-1 with Reggie Kelly on target with one against Bridon but producing a great personal performance with 5 against Doncaster Town. The signing of Nathan Lovell now seemingly giving some spine to the side.

February: Three wins from 3 games put the side in a strong position as they went through the month unbeaten and take them to a 3 point advantage at the top of the table as another 5 from Kelly helped the team to a 7-2 win at Bridon FC, there were also a 6-1 win over Balby Recreational and a 4-3 success over Doncaster Deaf Trust though Reggie Kelly scored yet again to take his tally to 24 the headlines were taken by Nathan Lovell who got a treble.

March: The team welcomed March with 2 successive Division 1 KO Cup games, they first defeated Yorkshire Main 2-1 with that win meaning they played the semi final 7 days later and beat Doncaster Town 4-2. The month finished with their only league game, a 4-1 success over Yorkshire Main, no goal for Kelly this time though Lovell showed his scoring touch with 11 goals from his 5 appearances so far.

April: April opened with a narrow 1-0 win over bottom club Balby Recreational before 2 high scoring games saw United score 9 goals but gain only 1 point, they lost 5-4 at Old Road to Hemsworth Elite and drew 5-5 at Doncaster Town with yet another 7 for Nathan Lovell and only one for Kelly in those games. The month finished with the team deservedly getting their hands on a piece of silverware, played at Yorkshire Main the Division1 KO Cup saw United play Hemsworth Elite only a couple of weeks after the league defeat however this result was never in doubt as the Reds triumphed 5-1 to lift the trophy.

May: There were 4 games to play to finish off the season with the team top of the league the first game saw a high scoring draw of 4-4 at Doncaster Town, a 6-2 home win over Askern (though Askern still remained favourites due to games in hand) and a league awarded 3 points due to Yorkshire Main failing to fulfil a fixture. This brought the team to the final game of the season in top spot where they were playing 2nd placed Hemsworth Elite knowing that avoiding defeat would guarantee 2nd spot with Askern playing catch up with 2 games still to play and only 2 points behind. Unfortunately they were beaten by Hemsworth 5-1 and with Askern also winning this dropped them to a final league placing of 3rd.

Summary: There are still a lot of youngsters in the team and while they did find life difficult in the open division when playing some good teams in the Doncaster area the mid season placing into Division 1 put them at a level where they were more comfortable and they can be well satisfied with a league position of 3rd as well as winning a trophy, the Division 1 KO Cup. As well as team success there was also some individual glory with Reggie Kelly scoring 39 goals from 21 games and Nathan Lovell grabbing 24 from only 10 games, well done.