Is there a better way to spend a Sat afternoon ?

........than going to football when the sun is beating down ?

The mighty Wombles made their Blue Square Premier debut against Luton Town in front of 4,400 vociferous fans, which included tommo and margo. ;D

The crowd had a minute's unbroken applause to celebrate the life of Sir Bobby Robson.
We cheered former Dons hero and now Luton Manager Mick Harford to his place in the dugout.
We booed every touch of the ball by Luton striker the treacherous Kevin Gallen who first turned down a move to the 'old' Wimbledon, signing instead for QPR and then transferring to Milton Keynes.

In the 20th minute a Luton fan was arrested and ejected from the ground after knocking the head off our mascot, the rotund Hayden the Womble. Haydon had to scale a barrier to retrieve his head and put it back on. >:( Luton were then awarded a penalty from which they scored.

Half time arrived after what seemed an eternity, relentless pressure from the visitors, all full-time professionals unlike us. 0-1 down and it could easily have been three.

Some good substitutions half-way through the second half turned the tide. Suddenly we had a potent strike force, John Main won a penalty, from which he scored. Visiting fans went strangely silent.

The last 15 minutes was one-way traffic as Wimbledon pushed for the winner. Cameo appearance from Ricky Wellard whose appearance on the pitch was heralded by "Who let the dogs out ? Woof Woof Woof Woof" from the Luton fans.

At least they found some amusement in the 1-all draw, after a landslide victory had been more likely from their earlier showing.

[tommo III]

Twelve years down the line......

Re this quote from yesterday:

Nov 5, 2021 23:56:25 GMT tommo III said:
(NB. I won't be around to update the results of these ties as going to football - will be my first visit to the new Plough Lane stadium - so please refer to the live tournament link kindly provided by Graeme and Sean - tommo)

Well, one more I can cross off my bucket list as I attended an FA Cup match in our brand new stadium (Capacity 9000 with potential to increase to 20,000).

               

Outside and inside:                                                                    Overground, underground

But a real adventure, as thanks to police marshalling I was nearly set upon by the Guiseley (Leeds) supporters chanting "Wombles leaving in a body bag" which caused me to lose my bearings and wander aimlessly about for an hour before finding Earlsfield Station. I then went overground to Wimbledon and underground to Wimbledon Park where I had parked my car. Earlier the Golf Club had allowed me to 'pay a visit' in their impressive halls (friendly and charming people). I made the hour back up on the journey home - 2 hours going (with congestion) and 1 hour coming back.

The match ... we were lucky to win the match after scoring just before half-time. Ours is a young team, concentrating on possession but IMO passing back to the g/k too much. As one might expect with a team from Leeds, Guisely were very dirty, targeting our best player and having five booked. But they outplayed us in the second half and it was a relief when the final whistle went.

[tommo III]

FA Cup Round Two today: Wimbledon v Cheltenham......

Only took an hour to get there today, so had some time to spare and had a mooch round Wimbledon Park (practise tennis courts, cafeteria and great views including the boating lake with its associated wildfowl:

www.capabilitybrown.org/garden/wimbledon-park/

The match: we went 0-1 down in little over a minute - cue raucous chanting from the visitors ("shall we sing a song for you ?" & "can you hear the wombles sing? we can't hear a ****ing thing !") with every indication they would keep this up till half-time.

Then just before the break we hit them with two magnificent goals, rising star Ayoub Assal scoring one and making one.

The second half was most un-Wimbledon like as we kept pressing forward instead of trying to defend the lead. Sparkling football and with two goals out of the top drawer (one 'bent like Beckham) we found ourselves 4-1 up.

Cheltenham fans deathly silent and we gave them "you're not singing any more!" & "1-nil and you cocked it up". The visitors resorted to kicking lumps out of our players, former womble Chris Hussey doing his best Vinnie Jones impression. So our best two players, Assal and Ollie Palmer, were subbed for their own safety for the next round.

The visitors then got second wind and thanks to two late goals, one well taken and one an own goal (defender headed back to the keeper but too high and the keeper backtracking couldn't stop it going in !), a nervy five minutes plus five added on followed. So 4-3, heart-stopping but excellent VFM.  Premier League side in the next round ????  Bring it on !