Anger. Screaming, righteous, eye-popping, vein-bulging anger. The fuel for scenes of terrifying hatred that have on unhappy occasions rendered football grounds some of the least hospitable places on the planet. An all-ticket match at an hour before the pubs open. Heavily protected vans on every corner, helicopters clattering in the sky, police horses in the streets, lines of helmeted officers linked down terraces. Raw, ugly, intimidating menace in the air.
All this for an FA Cup tie between a nonLeague club and Football League opponents where sweet-tempered romance is normally the order of the day? Surely not. Well yes, if AFC Wimbledon win their fourth qualifying round tie away to Maidstone United today and the draw that will be made live before the cameras of ITV tomorrow afternoon pairs them for a first clash with Milton Keynes Dons in the first round.
The supporters who believed that they had their birthright ripped away when Wimbledon were moved from South London to Buckinghamshire would have a chance to proclaim their superiority over supporters who protest that they are still entitled to claim their lineage from the club who rose to spend 14 years in the top flight and lift the FA Cup in 1988.
A gesture of conciliation was made last year when MK Dons returned the replicas of the FA Cup, Amateur Cup and other mementoes to South London. By doing so Pete Winkelman, the chairman of MK Dons, indicated that he was prepared to abandon all claims to the honours gained by the club whose move from Selhurst Park he engineered in 2003 and pleaded with the football community to drop its hostility towards “Franchise FC” and focus upon his achievements in establishing the club in Milton Keynes.
First and foremost of those was the success in building a new home – the stadium:mk. Failure to find a new location in their own borough had been a source of frustration to Wimbledon once a combination of the demands of the Taylor report and the steepling success on the pitch forced them to abandon Plough Lane for Selhurst Park in 1991.
Winkelman points proudly to a new generation of supporters that accompanied MK Dons to Wembley Stadium for the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy final in March and celebrated their Coca-Cola League Two title triumph, not to mention the academy that is tapping into the potential footballers of a fast expanding region.
AFC fans remain resolutely unimpressed. Woe betide anyone who suggests that the opening goal scored by Keith Andrews in MK Dons’ 2-0 Johnstone’s Paint final defeat of Grimsby Town was the Dons’ first at Wembley since Lawrie Sanchez downed Liverpool in the 1988 FA Cup Final. Indeed, the internet forums hummed with suggestions that they should hand over the latest trophy, too.
The argument is that supporters cannot feel comfortable with honours gained without having slogged your way up the footballing mountain, as Wimbledon did under Allen Batsford, Dario Gradi and Dave Bassett in the 1970s and 1980s – and AFC have been doing in the past six years to reach their present position at the top of Blue Square South.
The club, they point out, did not arrive off the back of a removal lorry but started with supporters unloading trestle tables at grounds in the Combined Counties League from which scarves, replica shirts, key rings, calendars, and mugs bearing the visage of Terry Eames, the first manager, were sold. Each penny counted. No nice covered stands here, barely room to be crushed against rudimentary railings; the only shelter coming from numbers amid howling gales and lashing rain.
AFC Wimbledon’s predicament is that their prospects of returning to Wimbledon from Kingsmeadow, the ground they bought off and now share with Kingstonian in Norbiton, are no better than those of the original Wimbledon.
The other issue is that the sheer size of their following – league attendances average 2,900 this season and the commercial department is thriving – has made them a powerhouse in nonLeague football and enabled them to retain their status as a supporters-run club. Yet if they reach the Football League, or indeed Blue Square Premier, the finances required would put them under pressure to open the door to the kind of investors and potential controlling interests that could cut away the moral high ground that the club claim at present.
Supporters of a dispassionate nature believe that AFC’s superiority as a club does not need to be validated by beating MK Dons on the pitch. Yet football is a game that incites high passions. No wonder two clubs, two councils, two sets of safety officials – and two police forces – may be watching the draw with trepidation tomorrow.
‘You cannot manufacture passion, hence you lot will never have it’ - Best (and worst) of the web
Here is a selection of some of the heated exchanges that have been flying across the web during the build-up to a possible meeting between the clubs, writes Kaveh Solhekol
“I never wanna play against the franchise scum” – afcwgb.com
“I’d rather have a football fixture than the media circus that those clowns would turn it into” – moocamp.com
“The ground would empty well before the whistle – our celebrating would be too much for them to take” – moocamp.com “A tie against AFC Wimbledon would bring in some much-needed TV revenue. If we pull them out of the hat (assuming they get through against Maidstone), I will eat it” - moocamp.com
“I find it hilarious that people bash us for being a franchise. We do not meet any definition known to man of a franchise and these bashers shop in franchise stores, buy petrol from franchised garages, eat in franchised restaurants, etc, etc, so why the hell would they find watching a franchised football club so outrageous? Idiots” – moocamp.com I support AFC Wimbledon and before that Wimbledon. It was a little disappointing that I’m now supporting a nonLeague team, but as I began supporting Wimbledon when they were in the old fourth division (and I remember them from Southern League days and their legendary FA Cup run), I didn’t mind so much. And I certainly don’t recognise the Milton Keynes club as an honest successor to FC. As AFC say, it’s the fans who make the club – and judging by the support from past players, they think that AFC is the real Wimbledon as well. So if the fans agree, and the old players agree, who is qualified to disagree?” – yahooanswers.co.uk
“If MK Dons moved to say Salford, Greater Manchester, how would you feel after sweating blood, tears and lots of cash for 20 years? It’s clear you have a passion for your football club, would you continue to support them from afar or start another FC club?” – moocamp.com
“You cannot manufacture passion, hence you lot will never have it. Viva AFC Wimbledon” – moocamp.com
