Monday, April 20, 2009

The Real Dons

Supporting a football team is an emotive experience at the best and worst of times. Having been born in the 60's my football supporting years were based on Leeds United and to a lesser degree, Liverpool.

Breaking away from the family mould was quite difficult, but it was aided by a mutual friend who started to support Aston Villa in the old second division. You don't have to support First division teams.

After a lot of searching I found myself drawn to Wimbledon FC having remembered them from a Leeds United cup game some time beforehand.

So from 1983 I switched my allegiance and had a roller coaster 20 years or so of promotion, winning the FA Cup, beating the likes of Man U, but then followed by crazy management, bad signings (John Hartson anybody?) and finally demotion.

The final cremation of the coffin was the rent-a-city action by the Football Association that saw the team transferred to Milton Keynes. Suddenly I didn't have a team anymore. So the real fans decided to form their own.

Well I'm please to say that I have supported AFC Wimbledon since their inception and view them as the sole continuation of the old Wimbledon FC. Next week they will get promotion to the Blue Square Premier (nee Conference) and be one promotion away from getting their league status back.

The fact that the team is run as a trust owned by the fans, that Wimbledon has been so badly treated by the Football League, and that even now, they find themselves mired in controversy and extremes of luck makes supporting them a very easy choice.

I don't think anyone honestly thinks they will be able to replicate the previous successes of earlier years, but this supporter would be ecstatic if they just got into the league again.

I just hope we can drop the AFC bit at that stage.