Tag Archives: AFC Wimbledon

Football

First Home Game in Almost Thirty Years

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As one of our songs goes;
“The Wombles had a dream,
To watch our football team.
Back at Plough Lane, where we belong,
The journeys been long.
And the F.A. were wrong,
Were AFC Wimbledon,
And we have come home.”

Following the publication of the Taylor Report in 1990, which introduced new safety measures for football stadia including the regulation that the stadia of teams at the highest level be made all-seater by August 1994,[16] the board of the club decided that Plough Lane could not be economically redeveloped to meet the new standards.[17] The work required to modernise Plough Lane would have been difficult and expensive, but not impossible as the board claimed.[12] A supposedly temporary groundshare with Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park was announced the same year, to begin from the start of the 1991–92 season. This arrangement was only expected to last for a few seasons, but it would ultimately last for 12 years and would end in a very different fashion to what might have been expected at the outset.[12] Wimbledon’s final first team match at Plough Lane came on 4 May 1991, coincidentally against Crystal Palace. 10,002 spectators saw Crystal Palace beat Wimbledon 3–0, before swarming onto the pitch to bid farewell to the ground.

From Wikipedia

Tonight November 3rd 2020 we played our first game back in Plough Lane for almost thirty years

I only ever went to one game at (old) Plough Lane, and I can’t even remember who we played. I had recently moved down from Scotland after getting married and fancied going to watch some football. Vinnie Jones was booked, but that doesn’t really help to pinpoint the game. I then disappeared off to the Solomon Islands and by the time I came back the Dons were playing at Selhurst. It was there that I started supporting them. Mainly because of the 157 bus. It ran from the top of my road to Selhurst.

It has been a long and at times a hard journey. The old Wimbledon FC ground-shared with Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park for twelve years, then were franchised to Milton Keynes. The Wimbledon fans decided to start our own club AFC Wimbledon like a phoenix from the ashes of the original club.

Open trials were held on Wimbledon Common, and from that we ended up with a team. We started in the Combined Counties League in 2002, nine years later we were back in the Football League. In 2016 we won promotion to League One. We have stayed there since.

Initially we were tenants at Kingsmeadow, ground-sharing with KIngstonian. We later bought the ground from them. Though many of us have fond memories of our time at Kingsmeadow, It was never really home. When the chance came to go back to Plough Lane the Dons’ Trust grabbed it with both hands.

Our problems were not over. There were delays in planning approval, mainly caused by our current Prime Minister (at the time he was Mayor of London). After it was approved we still had the problem of paying for the place.

We are a fan owned club though, the only sugar-daddies that we have are ourselves. Our crowdfunding/share issue raised about £2.5 million, but that still left us with a shortfall of about £11 million. The Plough Lane Bond was set up, allowing fans to lend to the club over periods of up to 20 years and to name the rate of interest we wanted. In my case I had a lump sum from my pension that was sitting around, safe but earing almost zero interest. I decided that, while the bond wasn’t as secure as the bank, it also wasn’t too risky, and I would get a reasonable return on my money. (I didn’t put all my lump sum in, it isn’t that safe) That and an investment by a local businessman closed the gap to a sum we could afford to borrow at commercial rates. By the way it is still open if anyone would like to earn a bit more interest than your savings account.

We had two more ground-shares to go through. Because the stadium wasn’t ready for the start of the season, we played our first home games at QPR’s Kyian Prince Foundation stadium and we also played Brighton in an EFL Trophy game at Crawley.

That takes us to tonight and our game against Doncaster Rovers at Plough Lane.

Just one big problem. I should have been there in the West Stand – Block 106 – Row J – Seat 28. Instead I watched an entertaining, but ultimately frustrating match in front of my computer. Due to Covid-19 no fans are allowed at the moment. When we will be allowed back is anyone’s guess. I hope we can get back before the end of the season, but I won’t hold my breath.

When we are allowed back that will be the time that it will really feel that we have come home.

Covid-19

Lockdown V2.0

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22/09/2020

Bozo appeared on our TV screens tonight to announce that we were returning stricter lockdown conditions because Covid-19 infections had started rising exponentially (R>1). As can be seen from the graph

UK: number of new coronavirus cases per day 6,000 5,000 4,000 3,000 2,000 1.000 Mar 4926 May Aug

It is back to working from home if you can. Not that it will make any difference to me. I have recently, more or less, retired. It seems like it was only a few days ago that every one was being urged to go back to the office to save Prêt a Manger and Costa Coffee.

We are allowed to meet in groups of up to six people, from no more than six different households, (I think) except for grouse shooting. The guidance, as per normal, is a bit vague.  Mask wearing is now compulsory in a lot of situations, with fines of up to £200 for non compliance. How that will be enforced I have no idea.

I’m not even sure that people will follow the regulations. The first time round, most people followed the guidelines fairly well. However a lot of that goodwill evaporated when Dominic Cummings took his trip to Durham, after having been diagnosed with Covid-19. This broke every rule in the book, but rather than being sacked, he was allowed to carry carry on as before, shovelling barrow loads of taxpayers money to companies run by friends and acquaintances, for services of dubious provenance.

In the video, if you can stomach watching it, he says that too many people failed to follow the rules, and that is why we are in the situation we are in now. I would say that because one high profile person broke the rules with impunity others decide to follow his example.

During the month of August, we were all encouraged to “Eat Out To Help Out”. On  Mondays Tuesdays and Wednesdays, the government paid half our bill in a restaurant. This led, in New Malden, at least, to non-socially distanced queues of people round the block for some restaurants. This would not have had any effect on transmission rates.

Since my last post I have had a very pleasant holiday in the Isle of Wight in the company of Diane’s grandkids. (We allowed their mum and dad to come along as well)

Other bad news from the lockdown announcement;  Stadiums will remain closed to supporters indefinitely. I bought my new replica tops (home and away) yesterday, in preparation for our (AFC Wimbledon) return to Plough Lane. I also bought a new Plough Lane scarf and a couple of AFC Wimbledon facemasks. The way things are going the only things that I might get to wear are the facemasks.

23/09/2020

Toilet rolls are disappearing from the shelves again, which surprises me, I would have thought that half the country still has about six months supply from last time.

Football

Life goes on in the sort of Locked-Down United Kingdom

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I haven’t written anything on here for over a month. This was the last thing I wrote, but didn’t publish. Since writing this bit below a couple of things have clarified, The season has now started, behind closed doors, and we have a temporary home at The Kiyan Prince Memorial Stadium, courtesy of Queens Park Rangers. We played Oxford in the EFL Cup yesterday and lost on penalties. Disappointing, but apparently there were a lot of positives to take from our performance against the team that I thought was the best in League One last year. Work at Plough Lane has progressed as well, but we still don’t have a definite opening date. The first match could be against Blackpool on Tuesday the 27th of October, but we don’t know as yet. Whenever it is, I hope that at least some fans are allowed in to watch. I would hate the team to run out for the first time to an empty stadium.

Day 132 Sunday 02/08/2020

Yesterday was the first Saturday in August. It should be the start of AFC Wimbledon’s annual attempt to remain in EFL League One. Four seasons ago we stayed up comfortably. Three seasons ago it took a scrappy 0-0 draw away to Doncaster on the second last game of the season to ensure we stayed up. Two seasons ago, it was another even scrappier 0-0 draw at Bradford on the final day that kept us up on goal difference. The season just gone saw us stay up, just, on average points per game after the season was curtailed.

Last seasons opening game.

If we continue that trajectory, we are favourites to be relegated.

This year however The Cherry Red Records Stadium is no more. Kingsmeadow has reverted to its proper name, and is now solely the home of Chelsea Women. We are on our way home to Plough Lane. The only problem is that I have no idea when the new season will start. It is probably a good thing, from our point of view, as the new stadium is unlikely to be completed until October. When, or if, the season starts the first games will probably have to be played behind closed doors. It might be possible to do that at Plough Lane as the pitch has been laid and looks in very good condition. Otherwise, we will need to find a temporary venue. Possibly Kingsmeadow, if Chelsea are willing.

Under construction
What it should look like
Getting there

We also have new Home and Away Kits.

I like them a lot.

Change Kit
Covid-19, Football

LOCK-DOWN U.K. Days 61-66

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Day 61 Saturday 23rd May

We moved some furniture back into the bedroom. Getting the mattress back up the stairs was a challenge. It was bad enough getting it downstairs when gravity was helping. Putting the bed back together also proved to ba a bit of a challenge as well. We managed to reassemble it then noticed that the sides were the wrong way round. We left it, but I knew that it would bug me.

We had our monthly games evening. Normally, we get together with four other couples to play board games (and eat, drink and chat). Catan and Carcassonne are the favourites, but obviously they are difficult to play over zoom. I’m sure that there probably is a way, but we haven’t worked one out yet. We have found some other word based games that seem to work. We had fun. Hopefully the next relaxation of lockdown will let us meet up in each other’s houses.

Day 62 Sunday 24th May

Lockdown relaxation now allows us to meet up with friends and family, provided we keep the two meter distancing. We met up with Diane’s son Ben, his wife and their two boys in Nonsuch Park for a walk and a chat. I played football with the boys, or to be more precise I was goalkeeper while Freddie and Jack spent half an hour kicking each other and occasionally kicking the ball instead. I was the first time we had seen them since lockdown started.

Nonsuch Park

Nonsuch Park is what is left of the grounds of Henry VIII’s Nonsuch Palace grounds.

After we arrived back home, the bed being wrongly assembled was still bugging me. I decided to put it right. Today, it all seemed simple compared to yesterday. I suppose when you have done a job once, the second time is easier, because you know the mistakes you made first time round and don’t make them this time.

Day 63 Monday 25th May

Another meet up with family. We took a trip down to the Devil’s Punch Bowl to meet up with Aimie. We hadn’t seen her since the week before the lockdown started. She is expecting twins sometime in the fairly near future. Diane insisted that we could not go for a long walk in case Aimie went into labour, and we had to get back to the car. We had a picnic (two meters apart of course) Aimie brought a rather nice cake that she and ‘Tilda had baked. ‘Tilda didn’t come. We thought that she might not grasp the concept of “social distancing”.

It was good to meet up with her after this time. Hopefully by the time the twins are born things will have relaxed enough so that we can go and see them.

Day 64 Tuesday 26th May

There has been a bit of a hiatus in posting. This has not been due to an unauthorized trip to Barnard Castle. It has mainly been due to the sudden social whirl that we find ourselves caught up in. Tonight was dinner at the allotment with Chris and his partner. Charlotte cooked us am excellent vegan supper. We brought the Prosecco and the crisps.

It was ten o’clock and almost dark by the time we left. Apart from being bitten by something or things, it was a lovely night.

Day 65 Wednesday 27th May

Quiet day. I didn’t have much to do work wise. Diane had a Zoom meetup with some of the girls that she went to school with. I find it remarkable that fifty years after they left school almost everyone in the class is still in touch with each other. While that was going on I took myself off to the allotment to water it.

Day 66 Thursday 28th May

I’m getting a bit fed up with lockdown, more than fed up with the mendacity and incompetence of our government but at least there is some good news today if you are an AFC Wimbledon fan

“We’re AFC Wimbledon, and we’re on our way home”
Hopefully our first game back at Plough Lane will be in front of a full stadium and not behind closed doors. The build is coming along.

Covid-19, Football

LOCK-DOWN U.K. DAY 41

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Day 41 Sunday 3rd of May

Today should have been a pretty special day. It should have been the last game of the 2019 – 2020 season. We (AFC Wimbledon) were supposed to be playing Coventry, who would, possibly, have been champions elect, and we would, of course, have been safe from relegation. For the last game of the season, we arrange a hospitality meal before hand. This year the EFL had decided upon a midday kick-off for all League One games, I was looking forward to my brunch. Covid-19 and lock-down put paid to all that.

Above and beyond all that, today would have been our last ever game at Kingsmeadow*. Kingsmeadow has been too small for us for years, the ground only holds 4,850. We sell out the home areas most games. We can have a maximum of about 600 away fans. Not every team fills the away end, Fleetwood and MK usually struggle to bring 100, but some clubs, Sunderland, Portsmouth and Ipswich would bring 2000 if we had the capacity. The stadium and it’s facilities are tired, the sight lines are abysmal, especially from the Rygas terrace, The hot tap on the sink in men’s toilet at the Chemflow end hasn’t worked for years. I could go on. We will all be glad to move back to Plough Lane next season (whenever it starts) but Kingsmeadow helped us move from being a crazy dream in 2002 to being an established Football League club in 2020. A lot of people will shed a tear at our departure.

Every one will have their particular favourite memories of Kingsmeadow. Mine is a bittersweet one. It is our 4-2 victory over West Ham in the cup last season. It was also the last time I saw my friend Steve. He died suddenly a couple of days after the game.

It does seem a a bit of an anti-climax to think that the last game there was a boring 0-0 draw against Bolton.

Hopefully this lockdown will be over by the time Plough Lane opens. I would hate to think of Will Nightingale leading the team out for our first game to the sight and sounds of empty stands.

I will leave this video that the club made to commemorate our time at Kingsmeadow.

*It is possible that the team has not played its last game at Kingsmeadow. If closed door games are played either to finish this season, or at the start of next season, I could see them being played at Kingsmeadow.

Football, Sport

CoronaVirus, and other Random Thoughts. Pt1

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Why now?

I haven’t posted for a while, almost a year in fact. The current events have prompted me to dust the keyboard off. Writing helps me make sense of what is happening. I find it helps me to order my thoughts.

Like 99.9% of the world’s population, the virus known as Coronavirus, Covid-19, or SARS-CoV-2 has dominated my thoughts for the past week. This post will probably contain all the advertised, random thoughts, ramblings and a rant or two as well.

Football (and sport in general) the first casualty

Important things first. Football has been suspended, as have almost all other sports. All of cycling’s spring classics have been canceled. There is no horse racing, the Masters golf tournament has been postponed and the cricket season seem unlikely to start. Football should restart on the 3rd of April. I will be very surprised if it restarts then. I don’t see this being over or even under control until the end of June at the earliest. The footballing powers think the season can be completed. This is because the Euros have been postponed until 2021. I don’t see it myself. My feeling is that the season will be abandoned.

This also means that I have probably watched my last AFC Wimbledon game at Kingsmeadow. If we had known that our game against Bolton was going to be the last, we might have planned differently. We could have organized something special. Our new stadium, in Plough Lane, should be ready for next season. The work may be delayed, especially if London is put into full lockdown. For the time being, we have an opening date of the 29th of August. It happens to be my birthday.

When will I get to wear these again?

We had planned a celebration for the final game of the season against Coventry. But, it seems it is not going to happen now. We will just have to make do with this video that the club have produced.

The ground is too small for us. It is more than shabby. It can take forever to get served at the bar. The sight lines, especially from the Rygas terrace are horrendous. We know all that. It has been home for the past eighteen years. It has helped us grow from a mad idea into a professional club. We now play in EFL League One. We are still fan owned. Watch the video. Discover why some of us will shed a tear. Even though we are all glad to be heading back to Plough Lane.

I’ll leave my thoughts there for tonight. I will come back to them tomorrow. I will try to work out my feelings about what this virus means.

2018-19 Away days, Football

Away Day No 3 – Reality Check?

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So far (two games in) this season, we (AFC Wimbledon) have looked decent. We were the better side against both Fleetwood and Coventry. All we needed to do was be a bit sharper in front of goal. The football we are playing is attractive to watch, and the intent seems to be to try and win games, where as last season the idea too often appeared to be not to lose.

We were all reasonably happy as we set off on another long trip up t’ north, to Barnsley this time. Barnsley had also made a good start to the season and were sitting on top of the league with a 100% record. They are one of the favourites for automatic promotion. So would today be a bit of a reality check?

Barnsley, is a surprisingly awkward, and expensive place to get to on the train, so we took the supporters coach . It was another early start. The coach was leaving the stadium at eight in the morning. So I was up at six to drive myself over and meet Stevie at Fat Boy’s for breakfast at seven. The consensus over breakfast was that if we carried on playing the way we had been then we should come away with a draw at least.

We had our normal toilet and coffee stop for at Watford Gap services. While we were stopped at Watford Gap this thing pulled in beside our coach.
20180818_1036053

It was the official Watford FC team coach, with no one on it except the driver. His job was to drive the coach up to Manchester, pick the team up from the airport and take them to their hotel. Then presumably drive them to their game against Burnley tomorrow. How the other half live.

The Opposition

Last year Barnsley finished 22nd in the Championship and were relegated to League One. They kept most of their Championship team together, including Keifer Moore, who caused us all sorts of problems last year when he was playing for Rotherham. They also have new owners.  Barnsley’s long term Chairman Patrick Cryne died of cancer earlier this year. In the lead up to his death , the Cryne family agreed to sell 80% of their stake in the club to an American consortium. So far they do not appear to have gone daft by trying to bring in big name players on silly money. Perhaps they feel that what they have should be enough to get them back to the Championship, then they can start to build to see if they can make the Premiership.

The Ground

After a bit of a mystery tour we found a place to park the coach just outside the away end. Someone, I’m not sure who, suggested the local leisure centre The MetroDome as a good place to get a drink and something to eat before the match. It was all right, but the selection of beers was a bit limited. The burger I had was OK, better than McDonalds at least.
The ground (capacity about 24,000) itself has three fairly modern stands on the South, East and North sides, but the West stand looks as if it might have been there since the 19th century. I am guessing that the uncovered seats were until fairly recently uncovered terracing.
20180818_1429031oakwell_top.jpg

We were accommodated in the North Stand. The sight lines were fine and there was enough leg room to sit comfortably. The attendance was about 12,000 with about 500 Wombles.

The Game

We made five changes from the team that won at Portsmouth on Tuesday. Will Nightingale replaced Rod McDonald, Liam Trotter replaced Anthony Wordsworth, Ben Purrington, replaced Tyler Garratt, Andy Barcham had recovered from his toe injury and took Mitch Pinnock’s place, and finally we started Kwesi Appiah instead of Joe Piggot. I think most of the changes were due to squad rotation rather than anything else. We have a lot of football to play in the next fortnight.
The game started with Barnsley pressing. They had a reasonable chance about five minutes in but put it high and wide. Shortly after that their keeper did well to keep a shot from Tom Soares out. For the rest of the first half it was fairly even. Our defence was solid against a lot of Barnsley pressure. We had another good chance about the thirty minute mark. Scott Wagstaff won a free kick on the edge of their area, unfortunately Kwesi Appiah’s kick was just over the bar.
The second half was similar. Our defence with, Deji Oshilaja and Will Nightingale outstanding, was still holding firm, but we were creating more chances. I was convinced that we had a goal half way through the half. Tom Soares played a lovely ball through to Kwesi Appiah who finished brilliantly, unfortunately the linesman thought it was offside. It must have been marginal. I thought he was level with their last man when the ball was played. Kwesi also should have had a penalty a few minutes later when he was held back after he had flicked the ball on for himself. Joe Pigott had a shot saved after he came on for Kwesi. We saw the game out comfortably. Tom King only had one save to make all match, and to be honest it was a catch rather than save.
There was an unusual occurrence for a League One match, no one on either side was booked. Possibly the referee, who I was not overly impressed by, left them in his car.

The Highlights

On the way back the consensus was that if Barnsley are one of the best teams in the league, then we probably don’t have too much to worry about this season. We matched them in all areas, and with a bit of luck could have won it.

Reality still hasn’t bitten.

2018-19 Away days, Football

Away Day No 2 -Searching for Unicorns

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The EFL Cup, or the League Cup as it is usually known, has had many names in its time, The Milk Cup, The Rumbelow’s Cup, The Capital One Cup to name a few. It is currently known as the Carabao Cup. All these incarnations have had one thing in common. In the eight years that AFC Wimbledon have been a member of the Football League, AFC Wimbledon have never made it beyond the first round of the competition. One year we didn’t even make it to the first round. We had to play a preliminary round against Crawley and lost.
This year our search for a place in the Second Round (something that most Wombles are convinced is entirely mythical) took place at Fratton Park – home of Portsmouth FC.

I don’t normally go to mid-week away games. I usually have to work on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Unless I take the Tuesday off it would not normally be possible to get to the game, and even if I did, I would probably arrive back home about three in the morning and have to get up again for work at six, so thanks but no thanks. I am on holiday this week and Portsmouth isn’t too far away, so I decided that I would join in the quest for this mythical beast.

As the coach left at four in the afternoon there was no pre-coach breakfast at Fat Boys, and I don’t think they do afternoon teas. (I’ll check when I’m in before the Barnsley game).  Two hours down the A3 and we were at Portsmouth.

The opposition

20180814_182938Back in 2013 Portsmouth were on the brink of liquidation. The club was saved by their fans who through the Pompey Supporters Trust  raised the money required to buy the club. On the way from the coach to our entrance to the ground we passed a mural dedicated to all the people who contributed to the rescue. I was pleased to see my friend (and dedicated Pompey fan) John Elgie’s name amongst them. The Pompey Supporters Trust has since decided that the fan owned model won’t work for them and the sold the club to former Disney executive Michael Eisner. As an owner of AFC Wimbledon (we are a fan owned club) I was a bit saddened by the news, but I assume that the PST did what they thought was best for the club. To be fair he does seem to be a “Fit and Proper Person” which is more than can be said for some of Portsmouth’s previous owners.

The Ground

Fratton Park looks like a Premiership ground from the 1980’s, I think there have been a few improvements since then, but it still looks a bit dated. There are rumours of a new ground or a complete revamp of Fratton Park, but for the time being I think they are just rumours.

20180814_185619

Only two of the stands, The Fratton End and the South Stand were open for the game. The early rounds of the League Cup rarely sell out. The official attendance was given as 6588 including about 500 unicorn hunting Wombles. So just about one-third full.

The food at the ground was football ground food, not brilliant, but not actively harmful to health. The sausage roll filled a hole. and created a small one in my wallet.

The game.

The Pompey fans – or at least My friend John – were confident:

We are ready. Won’t be there but they can probably see the opposition off without our support.

We made five changes to the team that drew against Coventry on Saturday. Tyler Garrat replaced Ben Purrington at Left Back, Rod McDonald replaced Will Nightingale at Centre Back, in the midfield Anthony Wordsworth and Scott Wagstaff were in for Liam Trotter and Andy Barcham. Up front James Hanson got his first start, with Kwesi Appiah replacing him on the bench. Portsmouth apparently also made five changes.

The first half was a bit cagey. I thought we had the best of it. We had a few decent chances, which possibly we could have made more of. Scot Wagstaff had a lovely lob over their keeper cleared off the line at the last moment. Though to be fair Portsmouth had a couple of chances of their own. But neither of the keepers had too much to do. The team looked sound at the back, with Rod McDonald looking very solid, Tom Soares was breaking things up and linking very effectively with the attacking midfield players. Mitch Pinnock’s crosses and set piece plays were causing the Portsmouth defence all sorts of problems, with Hanson and Piggott getting on the end of them. Despite all that we went in at half-time 0-0.

Four minutes into the second half it looked as if our unicorn hunt was over. They won a corner and delivered a good ball into the back post area. No one picked up their centre-half’s run into the box, he had a free header and we were one – nil down. Last year that might have been it. We didn’t (generally) do comebacks last year. This years team is made of different stuff. Going a goal down seemed to galvanise them. I was essentially all Wimbledon from then on. There were three or four shots well saved by their keeper, a couple of reasonable shouts for penalties turned down, by that I mean that I thought they were reasonable, the referee obviously thought differently, but what do League 1 referee’s know about football.

With about 25 minutes to go Neil Ardley decided it was time to change things about and took Mitch Pinnock, who was beginning to tire, off and brought Kwesi Appiah on, changing from 4-4-2 to 4-3-3, albeit with Appiah playing as a No 10 rather than 9 as he normally does. This caused Portsmouth even more problems. In addition to having to deal with the height and strength of Hanson and Piggott they now had to cope with Kwesi’s speed and skill. There was a goal coming. In the 75th minute Scot Wagstaff floated a sublime cross into the 6 yard area, Joe Piggott lost his marker and headed in the equalizer. What happened next, I think is indicative of the mindset of this team. Instead of celebrating, his first reaction was to wrestle the ball off their keeper to get it back to the half way line and get the game underway again.

The unicorn hunt was back on. Portsmouth did have one chance on the break, but I felt that if anyone was going to score it would be Wimbledon. In the 88th minute we did. Tom Soares put a floated ball into the area and Portsmouth’s right back, under pressure from Joe Piggott tried to clear the ball, but only succeed in clearing it into the back of his own net. You could say it was fortunate but it was the sort of own goal that is brought about by putting a player under pressure. I thought we overall we deserved the win. We were the better and more positive team on the night.

Highlights

 

The aftermath

So unicorns do exist, we are in the draw for the second round of the League Cup.

And “It only took eight years.”

Here is the proof.

r2_south_drawballs.png

I wouldn’t mind Fulham, QPR, Brentford or West Ham either home or away, but we all know what is going to happen, we are going to be drawn against Newport away.

2018-19 Away days, Football

Away Day No 1 -First Game of the Season

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Before a ball is kicked in anger anything is possible, we could win the league, and the F.A cup as well, we’ll be in Europe next season, we can dream. Reality normally sets in a few minutes after kick off, but on the journey up to Fleetwood the dreams were still alive.

Our dreams this season are fairly limited, mid-table mediocrity is the limit of most of our ambitions. Last season was a bit traumatic, we only secured our League One  status on the second last game of the season. Over the summer our squad was given a major refreshing. Nine players, including last years captain, were let go. A couple of players who we might have preferred to keep, including last years leading goal scorer,  were out of contract and decided not to renew, presumably because other clubs offered them wages that we couldn’t afford. Our second striker, who always carried a bit more weight than he should, apparently turned up for pre-season training looking as if he was planning to change sports to sumo wrestling. His contract was terminated “by mutual agreement”.

Against that the players that we brought in looked decent in the pre-season games.

So with high hopes I was up at six o’clock to set off for Fleetwood and our first game of our third season in EFL League one. I was up but not particularly awake as I discovered later. We were getting the train, because Fleetwood is a long way up ‘t North. Stevie and I decided to meet at Morden Tube and have breakfast there. The Café isn’t quite up to Fat Boy’s standard, but it isn’t bad. There was only problem, it wasn’t open. We decided that we would get something when we got up to Euston. This was a mistake. Possibly we chose the wrong place to get a bacon and egg roll. However we do not recommend Leon’s at Euston as a suitable venue for a pre-away trip breakfast.

The train left on time, wasn’t too crowded, had a few fellow Wombles on board but I guess that most of them would have caught the later train. We did meet a guy from Kuwait and his son. They were on their way up to Preston to watch the Preston North End – Queens Park Rangers game. I don’t think he supported any team in particular (in the UK at least) but enjoyed football and liked to go to new grounds. I think it is his ambition to watch a game at every league ground in Scotland and England. He seemed genuinely pleased to bump into a pair of AFC Wimbledon fans. We had a good chat with him and told him that he needed to be sure to come to New Plough Lane when it opened.

After the local train from Preston to Blackpool and the tram to Fleetwood, we arrived about 12:30. Around this point I was fully awake, that was when I discovered that I had left my ticket at home. I wasn’t a disaster, because I knew that the game was far from sold out and I would be able to buy a replacement, but it was still an extra £22.00. I tried for the sympathy vote from the girl in the ticket booth, but she wasn’t having it, so I had to pay up.

If you are in Fleetwood for the football there is only one place to go for lunch. The Highbury Chippy. It is directly opposite the away turnstiles, and serves some of the best fish and chips that I have ever eaten.

Highbury ChippyWe had our fish and chips and decided that a beer or two before the match was in order. The clubhouse , known as Jim’s Sports Bar is behind the home end. Fleetwood are happy to allow away fans in. It is modern, comfortable and serves a decent selection of beers including a couple of real ales from the local Bowland Brewery. There were loads of screens showing Salford v Leyton Orient. After the end of the game we wandered round to the away end and went in.

I like Fleetwood’s ground.  It is called Highbury and the team play in red with white sleeves, so I assume that at some point in the past, they thought of themselves as a sort of Arsenal of the north. There is standing at both ends with the main stand down one side and some additional seating for about half the other side. The capacity is just over 5000, today it was probably about three-quarters full.20180804_143243

So to the match. Despite all the ins and outs of the close season, seven out of the eleven starters were with us last season, though Kwesi Appiah spent most of last season injured, so he was like a new signing.

Before the match it had been the Joey Barton show. He was announced as Fleetwood’s new manager towards the end of last season, and took up his post when his ban from football ran out. How he will do I have no idea. I got the impression that the Fleetwood fans are sceptical. He has no managerial experience, I don’t think he has done his coaching badges. He had no experience of playing at this level, so we will have to wait and see. I will be surprised if he is still there at the end of the season.

Last season there was a phase of opposition managers being sacked after they had either lost or drawn against us. Wimbledon being rightly known as party-poopers, we wondered if this might happen again.

We started off 4-4-2. Two new full-backs a new goalkeeper and a new right midfielder. I was slightly surprised that Neil Ardley decided to start Tom Soares in central midfield alongside Liam Trotter, because Anthony Hartigan and Trotter had looked pretty effective together in pre-season. Against that Soares on form and up for it (which he was today) is about as effective a holding midfielder as you will find in League 1. Last season he was apparently playing with an injury, which didn’t always help.

We started positively, looking to get the ball forward, taking the game to Fleetwood. Our new full backs looked solid in defence, and promising going forward. in fact the whole back four looked good, especially as they had never played together before, possibly not even on the training pitch. Mitch Pinnock our close season signing from Dover carried on as he had during the pre-season friendlies. He was taking players on, beating them and firing in accurate crosses. In addition to that is probably the best striker of a dead ball that I have seen at the club. Our strikers, Kwesi Appiah and Joe Piggott were a were bit profligate during the first half, at times it looked as if they had never played together before. That might actually have been the case. Kwesi was out injured most of last season. He was injured before Joe joined in January and towards the end of the season, when he was coming on for 20 minutes at the end of the game, it was normally The Pig who made way for him.

The first half ended 0-0 with us having had the best of the game. Fleetwood looked fine but never really threatened.

Second half was much the same, except that we scored. A cross from Ben Purrington, our new left back nodded on by Andy Barcham for the Pig to poke home. We could have had two or three more, but their ‘keeper was having an excellent game, he made one brilliant save to prevent Scott Wagstaff scoring, and we were a wee bit wasteful. When they hit the post and it spun out for a goal kick, we kind of felt that it was going to be our day.

We left Joey Barton with a chorus of “Your getting sacked in the morning”.

It felt much more positive than our visit to Fleetwood last season. The team looked as if they wanted to play together, they looked as if the system we were playing suited them and they looked as if they wanted to take the game to Fleetwood. It is too early to get (over) excited. If it is still looking like this ten games in, then maybe.

We shared the train back to London with the team (they were in First Class) and quite a few Queens Park Rangers fans, some of whom may have over hydrated due to the high temperature. They had been playing Preston, and the racket they were making you would have thought they had won. I mentioned that the team looked as if they wanted to play together, seeing them on the platform waiting for the train, I got the impression that they liked being together as well.

We met them again when we were waiting for the tube. I think they were going back to the training ground to pick up their cars. As Stevie said “You can’t really imagine bumping into Chelsea or Arsenal on the tube can you?”

 

Football

A Season With the Wombles Part 1.

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It all started promisingly with our pre-season friendly against Watford. Our new goalkeeper George Long (on a season long loan from Sheffield United) looked like he was an excellent shot stopper and also had a prodigious boot on him. Cody McDonald our new striker scored two cracking goals and there were signs that some of our home grown players, notably Anthony Hartigan, Alfie Egan, Toby Sibbick and Egli Kaja could be pushing for first team places. Some of my predictions/hopes worked out – mainly concerning George Long, the rest well ……

As I have mentioned in other posts I started following AFC Wimbledon again last year following a four year break while Grace was being treated for Ovarian Cancer. I found that I was going to almost every match. The only ones I didn’t go to we’re the ones that I couldn’t get tickets for. So I decided to get a season ticket for this year. £340 well spent .. Possibly.

During the close season we had lost a couple of players who were fairly integral to the team. Tom Elliot (last years Player of the Year) was out of contract and although we offered him a new one, Millwall, who had just been promoted, offered him a better one. So our big lump with No. 9 on his back was gone. So to was our Duracell Bunny midfielder Jake Reeves. He wasn’t out of contract, but it turned out that there was a release clause in his contract and Bradford triggered it. Neither of them was properly replaced.

My first match proper of the season was our League Cup round 1 game against Brentford. No one expected too much from it. We have never got beyond the first round since we became a League club in 2011 (and thus eligible to enter). We did better than expected, holding then to a 1-1 draw at full time. Extra time proved our undoing with Brentford running out 3-1 winners. 

We had started our league campaign the weekend before with a creditable 1-1 draw away to Scunthorpe. The following Saturday saw us back in League action again, against Shrewsbury, the other team in League One who play in Blue and Yellow. We lost 0-1 which at the time felt extremely disappointing. In retrospect I don’t think it was quite as bad a result as I thought at the time. Shrewsbury turned out to be this year’s overachievers and have made it all the way to the playoff final. I would describe them as an efficient team. Very sound defensively, and able to nick a goal when the opportunity presents. However it was an indication of where we were going to be for much of the season. Difficult to break down, but finding it almost impossible to score. If we went behind there was the feeling that that was it, game over.

Fleetwood from the away end
Our next game against Fleetwood was my first ever away match. John and Stevie, friends I had made on one of our volunteers work weekends, go to most away games and told me that I should at least do one or two. So I decided that Fleetwood would be my introduction. The game was memorable for a couple of things. Not the football, we weren’t completely abject, but we were not very good. Fleetwood were not much better, but managed to bag a couple of goals thanks to mistakes (unfortunately becoming increasingly common) on the right side of our defence. No the two things that made it memorable were meeting a Canadian football studies researcher – I had no idea that such people existed – on Preston station while we changed trains. The other thing that made it memorable was the fish and chip shop outside the away end. They served some of the best fish and chips I have ever eaten.

That seemed to establish the pattern for the early part of the season, basically a series of disappointing losses and draws, interspersed with the occasional win to give us a bit of hope. But as every footy fan knows it is the hope that kills you.

Probably the most disappointing loss was the game I missed because of a family funeral back in Scotland. We played “The Team Who Shall Not be Named” on the evening of Friday (it probably should have been the 13th) 22nd of September. I tried to watch it on a very dodgy pirate feed whilst traveling back to London. The only two points that the feed stopped freezing were when Kwesi Appiah pulled up in their penalty area with the hamstring injury that would keep him out for most of the season, and when Lyle Taylor missed the penalty that might have gotten us back into the game. The train was stopped in Stevenage as the game ended, my thoughts were that we may well be back here next season.

Relegation was staring us in the face. I was having difficulty seeing where the next goal was coming from, let alone the next win. Our strikers were either out of form or injured, the midfield were reasonably enough defensively but we’re adding nothing going forward. On top of that I was becoming obvious that Paul Robinson, our right centre-back was playing one season to many.

To be continued……..