THE CRAZY GANG HAVE DON IT AGAIN
May 2011
It was a funny old weekend. While the vast majority of the football media concentrated on Premier League clubs desperately trying not to join the Football League two clubs gave it absolutely everything they had to join the same league from the other direction.
Nine years ago Luton Town were competing on level terms with the likes of QPR, Wigan and Blackpool in League 1. Their supporters still had warm memories of winning the League Cup and the halcyon days of David Pleat’s great Eighties side. Meanwhile in a pub on Wimbledon Common a far less happy group of fans were meeting to try and find a solution to a mess that even the Wombles would have struggled to clean up.
Left without a club, supporters of Wimbledon turned their backs on the distant new franchise and decided to start anew. They would run the club, recruit players, and start from the ground up. The only thing that mattered was it was THEIR club. I saw that club playing at Wallingford in Oxfordshire; the goodwill from every club they visited was genuine and only half based on the record bar takings that the huge number of away fans generated each week.
Six promotions in nine years have taken them to the Blue Square Play-off final and as I approach Eastlands it is the fans in Wimbledon’s blue and yellow who are posing for photographs outside the ground. This is a big day out and if they make it into the league then it is a dream come true. Luton fans meanwhile see it as a potential end to a two-year nightmare outside the league. They NEED to win today…
Inside the stadium the Hatters outnumber the Dons by at least two to one. Fans in straw boaters
wave orange flags as fireworks welcome the sides on to the lush turf. Behind me David Pleat smiles politely. The last time Luton played at Manchester City he made his iconic rush across the turf to celebrate a famous victory that kept them in the top flight. Today’s game is perhaps more important.
In the technical area Luton boss Gary Brabin prowls as his side start brightly but it is Dons boss Terry Brown who punches the air first as top scorer Danny Kedwell puts the ball away before noticing the linesman’s yellow and orange flag being waved in front of the sea of orange and white ones. Offside.
An open first half turns in to a more cagey second half. The football is bright and controlled but nerves are jangling all around as we approach the final whistle. Then, on 89 minutes, Luton striker Jason Walker rises in the six yard box to meet a perfect cross. His header is textbook; back across the keeper. The whole stadium freezes. The ball tonks politely against the post and somehow comes back out and into the arms of Dons keeper Seb Brown. Luton Town are literally an inch from promotion.
It is as close as they get.
Extra time is energy sapping for everyone concerned. Those straw boaters are in shreds while the man in the giant Womble costume has fainted. Then Kaid Mohamed strolls on to a pass and smacks his shot against the Luton post. Agony. Centre half Yakubu (not that one) prods a gilt edged chance wide in the 120th minute. Surprisingly the agony scale goes all the way to eleven.
46 Blue Square battles each: 92 games where no quarter has been asked or given, and it all boils down to penalties.
Alex Lawless, flawless in Luton’s midfield, sees the very first kick saved by Brown. Heartbreak for Lawless who was on the losing side for York in last year’s final. Mohammed sees his shot saved by Hatters keeper Mark Tyler. All (Blue) square. Then the luckless Walker’s strike is not crisp enough and Brown, falling to his right, somehow claws the ball away to safety. Step forward Danny Kedwell. His strike is hard and true and AFC Wimbledon have reached the summit of an incredible climb.
As Luton’s numb fans head for the M1 the stadium rings to Wimbledon fans singing, “It’s only taken nine years”. Manager Terry Brown takes care to thank the 35 volunteers who run the club; the win is for them he says. He warns that they will have the lowest wage bill in the league but that is for August; right now all he wants is a beer (“Hopefully someone will buy me one because it’s £4 a pint on Wimbledon High Street”).
Sometimes a game of football goes beyond any drama that Hollywood Directors can dream up.
Outside the ground the orange and white face paints have been washed away by tears. Luton’s day will come again. Today is all about AFC Wimbledon. A TV crew asks delirious Dons fans what it means to be just one division below the MK Dons. They totally miss the point. This day is not about where Wimbledon are heading, or about settling old scores. It is about how they got here and what they have been through. Winning against the odds based on spirit and togetherness.
AFC Wimbledon have just done a Wimbledon.
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