4 replies to this topic

[Caveman]

It was certainly a good (long) weekend in England for the soccer teams that play in claret and blue.

The two teams from the top flight that sport those colours- Aston Villa and West Ham United both won on the same day. Nothing specifically unusual in that- although they both played their part in relegating teams- Newcastle United done away with by Aston Villa and Middlesbrough last coffin nailed by West Ham.

Yet the main story will be that next season there will be three teams in claret and blue- Burnley from Lancashire (not the underground tunnels in Melbourne near the MCG) will also be taking part in the top flight after winning their playoff game against Sheffield United.

Also Scunthorpe United were promoted from what is really the third division to what is really the second division after beating Millwall in a playoff and also like Burnley it was at the new Wembley.

The other playoff saw Gillingham triumph over Shrewsbury Town. Some may know that Gillingham's most well known supporter was the famous commentator the great -but sadly late Brian Moore.

[Lisbon]

It's hard to believe that Burnley were a top team as recently as the sixties, when they won their second league title and more than held their own against Bill Nicholson's "glory, glory days" Tottenham, Alf Ramsey's "second division to league champions in one year" Ipswich Town and, of course, Matt Busby's Manchester United and Shankly´s Liverpool. They're back now, let's see what they can do.

They don't play in claret and blue, but I´d like to point out that AFC Wimbledon have just won promotion to the Conference and are therefore only one promotion away from "League Football". Congratulations are in order for all those die-hard fans from South London.

Oh, happy Portugal Day everyone! And next Saturday is Lisbon Day. We'll be partying all week!

[Caveman]

It's hard to believe that Burnley were a top team as recently as the sixties, when they won their second league title and more than held their own against Bill Nicholson's "glory, glory days" Tottenham, Alf Ramsey's "second division to league champions in one year" Ipswich Town and, of course, Matt Busby's Manchester United and Shankly´s Liverpool. They're back now, let's see what they can do.

They don't play in claret and blue, but I´d like to point out that AFC Wimbledon have just won promotion to the Conference and are therefore only one promotion away from "League Football". Congratulations are in order for all those die-hard fans from South London.

Oh, happy Portugal Day everyone! And next Saturday is Lisbon Day. We'll be partying all week!

Yes Happy Portugal Day and Happy Lisbon Day too. Maybe we should get a Lisbon clock instead of Big Ben?

That is mighty news about the real 'Wombles' - a great victory for the genuine fan who follows his/her traditional Wimbledon and not the manufactured MK Dons.

[Lisbon]

Well, I'll see about that clock. I'd better take a picture of one myself, we don't have anything like big ben around here...

Here's an article about AFC Wimbledon I found on the BBC the other day:

From Crazy Gang to Culture Club
By Peter Scrivener


Seven years ago, a Football Association-appointed committee said that "resurrecting 'Wimbledon Town' was not in the wider interests of football".
It was a statement that outraged many Wimbledon fans who were already hurting from the decision to move their club to Milton Keynes and they took it upon themselves to prove the doubting three-man FA panel wrong.
Fast forward to 2009 and 'Wimbledon Town', or AFC Wimbledon as the team became, has done just that in spectacular fashion by reaching the Blue Square Premier League after a fourth promotion in seven years.
Their rise from the ninth tier of the football pyramid draws inevitable comparisons with Wimbledon's climb from Division Four to the top flight of English football in the 1980s.
That rise was punctuated with a victory over Liverpool in the 1988 FA Cup final, prompting BBC commentator John Motson to utter the immortal line: "The Crazy Gang have beaten the Culture Club."
And this Crazy Gang spirit lives on in the supporters who give up their time to run the club.
AFC Wimbledon was conceived on 28 May, 2002 in supporter Ivor Heller's factory.
The date is a particularly poignant one in Dons history as exactly 25 years earlier the club had been elected from the Southern League, which they had won in the previous three years, to the Football League
Hellor, Mark Jones and Trevor Williams were plotting the conception while other supporters were in London's Soho Square to protest against, and then hear, the decision to move the club to Milton Keynes.
"We all felt that if Milton Keynes happened, we had to start another club," Heller who is now AFC Wimbledon's commercial director, told BBC Sport.
"We were in touch with Kris Stewart (who was chairman of the Wimbledon Independent Supporters Association and eventually became chairman of AFC) and he turned up the next day which really galvanised things. The rest is history."
And what a history. In seven years, the team have climbed from the Combined Counties League, the ninth tier of the football pyramid, to the fifth.
They cantered to their first title in only their second season with an unbeaten league record and followed that by winning the Isthmian League Division One at the first attempt.
After losing two Isthmian League Premier Division play-off semi-finals, the Dons made it third time lucky in 2008 to reach Conference South.
And this season, the club raced through the division, effectively securing promotion with a 1-1 draw at second-placed Hampton & Richmond in their penultimate game.
"I'm ecstatic," said Heller. "It's amazing. My major ambition was to get to the Conference.
"I've always been just a fan and I live and breathe every kick.
"But this is different to back in the 70s and 80s. It's a part of me and I'm a part of it. Everybody at the club feels a part of it.
"Some fans won't be satisfied until we're back in the Premier League, but the Conference was my ambition."
And now they are there, there is no rush to launch an assault on winning promotion to the Football League. The club have vowed to stay part-time in its first season in the Conference.
It is a calculated gamble, but one that fits in with the club's ethos of living within their means.
"It's a massive financial leap to go full-time," said Heller. "So we'll do the best we can in the Conference and if that's good enough to get us into the play-offs or better, then great. If not, it's not a worry.
"We also have to get our youth policy right, develop our community scheme and stay true to our ethos, every club has its limits.
"The club is built on a solid foundation and it was my dream to have my football club to follow when I got old."
Club president and former Wimbledon goalkeeper Dickie Guy has also been involved since the start after he received a phone call asking him to check out potential goalkeepers at the club's initial trial on Wimbledon Common, in the summer of 2002.
He played for Wimbledon throughout the 1970s and was in goal during their famous 1975 FA Cup run where they beat Burnley at Turf Moor to become the first non-League team to defeat a top flight club on their own ground.
He then saved a Peter Lorimer penalty as the Dons held reigning First Division champions Leeds to a draw at Elland Road in round four before losing to an own goal in the replay.
"We will get back into the Football League, but it won't be next season," said Guy who made about 20 appearances for Wimbledon in the Fourth Division in 1977.
"It would benefit us to be a bit more physical next season, but I don't want to lose the style of football way we play.
"I feel fortunate to have been involved in the good times at the club when we were winning the Southern League and now in our current run.
"But playing was much easier than watching. It was always more relaxing to be on the pitch.


"But it has been a fantastic season and much better than I expected - I would have been happy to be in and around the play-offs.
"We had a terrific start, tailed off by Christmas and were about 12 points behind Chelmsford, but then we steamrollered them all.
"We've felt the pressure and tension in the last few games and when we equalised against Hampton & Richmond last week I thought I was going to have a heart attack."
That 1-1 draw effectively sealed promotion ahead of Saturday's last game of the season.
The Dons welcomed St Albans to their home at Kingsmeadow, which has a capacity of 4,700, and had been sold out for days.
The Wombles ended the season on a high, with a 3-0 win and several supporters completed a charity walk from the Hertfordshire club to south-west London to watch the game.
Among them was board member and club mascot Dean Parsons, aka Haydon the Womble, who is looking forward to visiting places like Luton and Mansfield next season.
Just 17 years ago, Wimbledon v Luton was a top-flight fixture and the Dons beat the Hatters 2-1 in the semi-final of the 1988 FA Cup at White Hart Lane.
"The first game I ever went to, in 1983, was against Mansfield," he said.
"We are just one step away from the Football League and I'd like to think we can now beat our 15-year plan to return.
"In manager Terry Brown we've got a man who has done it before.
"He almost took Aldershot up from the Conference when they were only part-time in 2005 and lost to Shrewsbury in the play-offs.
"He said it was a bit of a blessing because of their part-time status and they wouldn't have been prepared.
"But we've come this far in seven years and it may take us another five to go this next step, but I won't be disappointed if it takes longer."
The club's resurrection has certainly been stunning and was retold on the stage at a Wimbledon theatre in 2004.
"Ours really is a great story," laughed Heller, "and if we get to the Football League, believe me, they'll turn it into a film."
Maybe the Crazy Gang is turning into the Culture Club.

[Caveman]

That is a great contribution there Lisbon- thanks so much for that. What a story- just shows when people love their club and they are prepared to stand up for what they believe in- then positive things can happen.

Another great thing about the English structure is how teams can come from nowhere and flourish (should they run their ship in a good way) There is such a room for advancement- hopefully this 'NEW' Wimbledon can move up through the ranks just like the "OLD' Wimbledon did.