AFC Wimbledon - The Real Dons

[Gerry T (R.I.P.)]

Tommo

Congratulations to AFC Wimbledon on reaching the Blue Square play-off final :) ;D
Good luck to them in the final against Luton at Eastlands - assume you will be going.
It will be nice to see them back in the Football League 8-) fingers crossed

Thanks Gerry,
It's been a tough season with Crawley on the doorstep!
Fancy sending us all the way up to Manchester, though.....I would have tried to get a ticket had it been Wembley.
Luton will be out for revenge for 1988 (FA Cup semifinal at White Hart Lane) so in a way I won't deny them their moment if they beat us. We've hit some good form recently, though. ;)

Congratulations to QPR on their return to the Premiership - and to Norwich (I'm also a Canaries fan).
And great to see Brighton go up as well, especially with the new stadium to go to. 8-)  

It's 5pm, 0-0 and the game is to enter extra time.  Lucky to still be there as the ball was cleared off our line twice in the closing minutes.  Come on you Wombles!  (Listening to radio commentary as couldn't afford £41 to see them at money-grabbing Man City) >:(

5.35pm and its the dreaded penalties.................This time it was AFC who squandered two chances right at the end. Well done to Luton for making it an exciting game. Sad that a mistake will now lose it for someone. :-/

WIMBLEDON DO IT !!!!!!!! 8-)   League football next year!

Penalties:
Luton: Alex Lawless Saved; Geoff Pilkington Scored; Adam Newton Scored; Jason Walker Saved; Jake Howells Scored.
Wimbledon: Sam Hatton Scored; Luke Moore Scored; Kalid Mohammed Saved; Ishmael Yakubu Scored; Danny Kedwell Scored.
Wimbledon win 4-3 on penalties.

Off to finish off that 4-pack of Magners now. ;D

An ecstatic tommo    

[bigstew]

Congratulations to your Wimbledon Tommo, an incredible achievement to go from nothing to Football league in 9 seasons! Enjoy your time in the League, as a Diamonds fan i know much better the level of quality you'll get to see and just ask and Kettering fan.....oh no wait ::) ;) ;D

Thanks, BigStew
I've followed them since 1981 and must have a collection of over 200 programmes. Never saw them play in Divs.3 and 4 though so that is a new experience to come.

What's your angle on this ?

May 20, 2011 21:27:36 GMT tommo III said:

An article in this week's Non-League Paper puts Diamonds' position as untenable, with a winding-up petition due to be heard next month.

The Poppies, though debt-free, face being homeless in two years with the Rockingham Road lease expiring, and no council backing for a new stadium.

Poppies Chairman Imraan Ladak is said to favour a 'coming together' of the two clubs - not a merger as such, and not a takeover, but involving Kettering Town moving to Nene Park!  They would wish to attract supporters from both clubs and as a goodwill gesture would take on a new name.

This would seem to make a lot of sense when the alternative could be losing both Conference Premier Clubs!  Hell would freeze over first you might say, but remember that successful mergers have recently come about down south to form Ebbsfleet Utd - and also Hayes and Yeading.

 

[davejones]

Congratulations Wombles.

It's a pity Cardiff City could not get into the premier league this season.

Thanks Dave,
I doubt if Swansea getting there instead will do much to ease the pain, so we better say 'good luck to Mr Alder's Reading'. ;)

41 quid is fa prices not citys

[BB Warrior]

Congratulations to the Real Dons..... and Crawley Town...... for reaching the football league for the first time in their histories. 8-)

Good luck to them both next season. ;)

May 22, 2011 0:18:01 GMT lewisstrat26 said:

41 quid is fa prices not citys

These are the facts, Lewis:
The Football Conference (not the FA) appointed a third-party agency, See Tickets, to sell the tickets.

At a Conference meeting the Clubs were notified that the arrangements that follow were in the contract with the City of Manchester Stadium which had been signed: Three pricing levels. Level 1 prices are £36 for adults and £18 for Under-16s. Level 2 prices are £41 with no concessions. Level 3 prices are £36 with no concessions. Level 3 tickets would only be released if there is a demand for them but will not have any concession pricing so please book early if you intend to take children.
Additional fees: Each ticket carries a £3 booking charge for adults and a £1.50 booking charge for concessions.

Add to this the cost of a trip up to Manchester (why?  Last year it was played at Wembley).

When both clubs complained to the Conference about the high cost - 50% more than the League 1 and League 2 playoffs - and no concessions - they were told that the contract was agreed with Man City at the start of the season, so nothing could be done. So Man City will definitely have benefitted financially from staging it.

May 22, 2011 8:59:29 GMT BB Warrior said:

Congratulations to the Real Dons..... and Crawley Town...... for reaching the football league for the first time in their histories. 8-)

Good luck to them both next season. ;)

Thank you Dave.  Both clubs now face hefty bills for ground improvements to comply with Football League admittance regulations.  We have already extended the main stand to provide extra seating, and added the extra set of turnstiles required.  We now need to build a 'control centre' from which all sides of the ground can be monitored by CCTV, and as I understand it, Crawley need to do the same.  

[bigstew]

May 21, 2011 19:40:36 GMT tommo III said:

Thanks, BigStew
I've followed them since 1981 and must have a collection of over 200 programmes. Never saw them play in Divs.3 and 4 though so that is a new experience to come.

What's your angle on this ?

May 20, 2011 21:27:36 GMT tommo III said:

An article in this week's Non-League Paper puts Diamonds' position as untenable, with a winding-up petition due to be heard next month.

The Poppies, though debt-free, face being homeless in two years with the Rockingham Road lease expiring, and no council backing for a new stadium.

Poppies Chairman Imraan Ladak is said to favour a 'coming together' of the two clubs - not a merger as such, and not a takeover, but involving Kettering Town moving to Nene Park!  They would wish to attract supporters from both clubs and as a goodwill gesture would take on a new name.

This would seem to make a lot of sense when the alternative could be losing both Conference Premier Clubs!  Hell would freeze over first you might say, but remember that successful mergers have recently come about down south to form Ebbsfleet Utd - and also Hayes and Yeading.

 

A merger will never happen Tommo as both sets of fans detest each other. With Ketterings attendances dropping each season, the chance of their fans going 10+ miles down the road to watch at Nene park would only see numbers drop even lower and with the running costs at the ground being sky high anyway, they would proberbly only go the same way as us.
I beleive Rushden will start next season in the BSP, but go into administration with a 10 point deduction and with young players on low wages, like Histon this season. We might struggle or even be relegated but its better than losing the club all together!

I hope for your sake that it's as simple as that, BigStew.

Non-League football can sometimes be like a game of snakes and ladders, though, for those with sudden injections of cash when it runs out: we've seen it with Canvey Island and Hornchurch, who were relegated more than one division.

What a long 'snake' we went down - eight levels, and it's taken us nine years to claw our way back up five of them!  

Clubs with a traditional fan-base like Bournemouth - and now Chester - will always find a way of bouncing back. Telford are getting there but Salisbury face a struggle.

To an outsider, it just seems such a shame that two 'neighbour' clubs, both standing on the threshhold of league football, but both with their very existence under threat, and each with something to offer the other, can't come together.

But then again, the owners of the 'old' Wimbledon got ideas above their station and tried to take over QPR  :o  - how grateful QPR fans must be that that wasn't allowed to happen! ;D

[Colemanator]

The difference between Wimbledon and Direones is a million miles apart. All KTFC fans wanted to see Wimbledon promoted, they had their club ripped away from them, MK Dons are on the same level as Plastic Diamonds. I look forward to the day when AFC play MK, a real day for real clubs and fans.

I appreciate the sentiment, Ian, but surely R & D came about by a merger between Rushden FC and Irthlingborough Diamonds, with an injection of funds by the Doc Martens chappie.

This is what Pete Winkleman should have done with Milton Keynes City, but instead we have had to go through the motions for him, and MK City went to the wall in 2004.

At the moment Kettering Town are successfully balancing the books, but what are you going to do about a ground when the Rockingham Road lease expires ?

[Colemanator]

Well Tommo, who knows, our chairman remains quiet :-X

R&D will announce this week their position. I know Imraan Ladak to speak to and i can tell you that he is shrewd man, he will not want a merger, he is the type to make that public to assess groundswell opinion, a mind game of sorts, we will be ok at RR for another 8 years or maybe 13, so the next few weeks will reveal the R&D position, there has been moves by their Trust to secure the team in the local UCL league, but they won't be playing at their current home.

[peetee]

Brilliant Wimbledon I'm glad they beat Luton. We (Oxford ) had a nightmare in the conference for 4 years now it's Luton's turn. I Know exactly how their fans feel. :'( :(

Pete ;D :)

AFC have had a massive clearout and will be pushing for promotion next season.......expecting the U's to be our main rivals. ;)

We have made four major signings: full backs Warren Cummings (ex Bournemouth) and Curtis Osano (ex Luton); and midfielders Stacy Long (ex Stevenage) and Louis Harris (ex Wolves & Notts County).