1421: AFC Wimbledon: “We’re Reclaimi
by : Paul Grech
Review of 2004
- January
- February
- March
- April
- May
- June
- Euro 2004
- July
- August
- September
- October
- November
- December
- Chris Sherrard's highlights of the year
- Chris Sherrard's lowlights of the year
In the long run, the lack of depth within their squad will probably preclude them from the top prize but they will still outperform teams who spent much more heavily than they did. For, in football, passion and team spirit can be great levellers.
Nobody proved that as well as Wimbledon did. For years, they defied the logic not only by keeping their place in England’s top tier but also by constantly outgunning supposedly better teams. And whilst most neutral observers decried their use of the long-ball the truth was that their players were often more determined to succeed than any other in their division.
Eventually, those who had claimed all along that their success wouldn’t last were proved correct and Wimbledon finally succumbed to relegation. On the day on which it was confirmed that they had lost their Premiership status, most fans wept openly.
Soon, however, they would have more serious worries than those of playing in a lower league. What had started as laughable attempt by Sam Hamman to transfer Wimbledon to Dublin turned into a more serious quest by new owners to put-up-shop in Milton Keynes.
Today Wimbledon FC no longer exists, their place having been taken up by MK Dons. Yet there is still a club representing the London borough in the form of Wimbledon AFC, the team set up by the supporters when it became clear that the FA were going to give their go ahead for the transfer to Milton Keynes. And whilst MK Dons struggle with dire attendances, AFC are one of the best supported teams in the whole non-league scene thereby strengthening their arguments for being the true heirs of Wimbledon’s heritage.
That claim recently came under attack from Peter Winkleman, one of those behind the move to Milton Keynes, who claimed that by setting up AFC the fans had effectively given up hope on Wimbledon FC and killed the club off.
“He's got that very much the wrong way round,” retorts Niall Couper, a committee member on the Dons Trust, when that notion is put to him. “How can a club that doesn't play in Wimbledon, isn't called Wimbledon, doesn't have the colours of Wimbledon, the badge of Wimbledon or any of the supporters of Wimbledon, claim the heritage of Wimbledon? It's absurd. The move to Milton Keynes killed Wimbledon FC. AFC Wimbledon gave the club its rebirth.”
Most seem to support his views. In their season guide at the start of the current campaign, the magazine When Saturday Comes left out the preview on MK Dons. Other previews went as far as using half of the allocated space to AFC’s prospects. You would be hard pressed to find any fan that isn’t sympathetic to what Wimbledon’s supporters have had to go through.
But whilst that might be the case, the most likely deterrent to anyone wanting to ‘do a Wimbledon’ with any other club would probably be the financial mess that MK Dons find themselves in after the move, rather than anything within the FA’s rules.
Cooper agrees. “Yeah it is still possible. But I think the best thing that has come out of it is that supporters are no longer so apathetic, they now realise what can happen to their clubs. So it will be a hell of a lot more difficult for the next Charlie Koppel. Personally, I'm encouraged by the huge growth in supporters trusts up and down the country.”
In three years time, if MK Dons continue with their free fall whilst AFC Wimbledon keep on progressing, the two clubs could find themselves in the same league, an occasion that Cooper would consider to be “sweet, but not special.”
But, in the meantime, AFC Wimbledon have already been re-acquainting themselves with old adversaries. Earlier this season, they staged a re-match of the 1988 FA Cup final, undoubtedly their most significant and iconic triumph.
Cooper explains that “the original concept was to revisit the era as we never thought we would get as many of the players there as we eventually did. It came about back in April at a fundraising meeting. The original plan was to have a celebrity game. Having written a book on the club I had a load of ex-Wimbledon players numbers and just took the concept one stage further.”
Was it difficult to get the players to agree to take part? “The Wimbledon players? Not at all. Most of them were falling over themselves to take part. In reality anyone who played for the club pre-first division or who had come through the club's ranks didn't blink an eyelid. Some of the later stars were a little bit more difficult. And it was a bit disappointing that Alan Cork and Dave Bassett couldn't make it.”
