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.

The Little Master

With apologies to Mr Sachin Tendulkar, but there's another little master on the block, one that we've known about for a while. But with Ireland's recent epoch making Grand Slam you have to look through the superlatives and realise that Declan Kidney's management has been the main difference from this rugby team going from perennial bridesmaids to the real thing.

Yes, notwithstanding Mr O'Driscoll's sudden return to form and the additon of some new blood like Rob Kearney. This season's grand slam has been about the inexorable Munster like tenacity of victory by sheer self-belief and determination to win.

This all-pervading confidence is infectious, up to the point that even the Irish, the most self-defeating nation on earth actually believed that we were going to win the grand slam. Let's not say that we thought that the class act of Stephen Jones was going to miss his last minute kick, just that the day would give just rewards to the better team.

So Mr Kidney, thanks for the grand slam, which in your modesty you'll diffuse the gratitude to anyone but yourself. But I recognise a master when I see one.

Champions League

A bit of a conundrum this. I can imagine Sepp Blatter choking on his cheese board last night as Liverpool made Real Madrid look like Blue Square opponents, come to think of it, that's a bit unfair on the Blue Square.

With Chelsea sneaking in against Juve and Man U + Arsenal holding the upper hand it's not reaching too far to presume that there will be 4 premiership teams in the last 8. It's well known that Mr Blatter doesn't like the premiership format of loadsamoney clubs and this will only harden his attitude to return to the days of limiting the foreign players on the playing surface.

I don't think this is necessarily fair on Arsenal and Man U who have strong policies on recruiting cheaply when the talent is cheap and nuturing them to fruition. On Liverpool whose transfer policy is plainly daft and on Chelsea and now Man City, he may have a point.

The interesting part is that while the Premier League is head and shoulders above the other leagues - not necessarily in entertainment - and the teams are slaying their opponents in the Champions League, it's obvious that the format is broken in contributing to the national team.

I really can't see England ever winning another World cup or a Euro one for that matter.

As such, maybe Mr Blatter has a point.