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Then, just when I started to cheer up, my Wimbledon bugger off to M****n K****s! |
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 I
was nine years old when I saw Celtic win the European Cup on TV in ‘67, I’ve
been a huge fan of the club ever since. However, as an issue of practicality
(me being at junior school and Glasgow being over 400 miles away), I used to
follow Aldershot too, our local league club at the time, playing in the old
4th division. Once me and school had parted company, life changed, hardly
saw the old friends I used to go to football with. So I sort of drifted away
from going to matches, turned into the average sofa-spud fan. Then, as fate
would have it, the mid 70s saw a change in the law that meant adopted people
were given the legal right to be told they were adopted, and to be given
details of their biological parents. Strangely, I wasn’t surprised to learn
that I was adopted, but that’s another story. I was surprised
to learn I’d been born in Wimbledon though, coz my mum and dad had always
told me I was born in Kensington. It’s not that they were winding me up or
trying to act posh (“Actually, dahling, we purchased you in Harrods”) or
anything, they really did think that. Armed with firm knowledge of my roots,
I became a born again Womble, a regular at Plough Lane and developed a
compulsive urge to pick up litter. Wimbledon became my new “little team”.Ah, ‘twas an era of wonder. They played in the old Southern League in those days (effectively division 5, though without the automatic promotion to the league there is these days), but were quite famous for giving big league teams a hard time in FA Cup ties. Then, in 1977, having won the Southern League yet again, the club were elected to Division 4 of the league proper. Thus began a dizzying ride - promotion to Division 3 in ‘79 - finished bottom and straight back down in ‘80 - promoted again in ‘81 - relegated again in ‘82 - back up in ’83 - then it got really interesting - promoted again to the 2nd division in ‘84 - then to the top flight in ‘86! My little Wimbledon were playing teams like Manchester United - and beating them! They were the days of the Crazy Gang, Vinnie Jones, when 98,203 people watched them win the FA Cup at Wembley in 1988. But Wimbledon were still a small club, “the club with no fans”, as they were frequently taunted. The jokes were common; a guy phones Wimbledon and asks what time is kick-off, “What time can you get here?” comes the reply. And the favourite with stand-ups was “Wimbledon are getting a new all-seater stadium… they’ve ordered a suite from Courts.” But joking aside, the Taylor Report (it wasn’t Sammi, honest) on football safety had recommended all-seater stadia for the top two divisions, the dye was cast. In ‘91, Wimbledon started ground-sharing at Crystal Palace. Sympathetic, yet disillusioned, I and many others swore we would never go to watch the team there, though I was still a keen follower. Three years later the club’s owner, Sam Hammam sold Plough Lane to Safeways for £8 million. The money didn’t go to the club though, it went into his bank account. I became a slightly less than keen follower. Then on May 28th 2002, the club announced they were leaving London completely, off some 70 miles north to Milton Keynes, land of suburbia and synthetic cows. Suddenly, the team with no fans had become the fans with no team. Disgusted, we deserted in droves. Many transferred (or maintained) their loyalty to the new AFC Wimbledon. |
Today; And that's as far as I got, though as far as I recall, the next sentence would have been something along the lines of - "But not me. I was too damned angry. And I was buggered if I was shelling out for a season ticket (and such was the new team's popularity that it was the ONLY way to see them!) to watch them turn out at Frimley Green and Ash Vale. No offence to either of those fine clubs, but it simply wasn't what we were used to."
I think the story of the club is probably too well known now for it to be worth my finishing it off, they were in the Combined Counties when I started that article, they are a fully professional Football League team now! But here's the official history for those of you who may not know; On May 28th 2002, an FA
Commission granted permission for a group of businessmen to relocate
Wimbledon FC Ltd to Milton Keynes, 70 miles from its history, home and
community. Devastated fans mourned the death of their club, but before long
they took a fresh approach by creating their own team. I got over the anger and Sam & I finally went to an AFC match at Kingsmeadow in the November of 2003, watching them emerge 5-0 victors over Hartley Wintney. It was just like being back at Plough Lane again (apart from the good result and the bigger crowd!), brilliant. Since then, I've followed the team through the five promotions in nine years that took them back to the league they rightfully belong in. As my brick at the end of the main stand says; "MAGIC IS A WOMBLE!" There will be more... |
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