Green Green Grass of Home

 One of my early musical influences was from my mum who would listen to Tom Jones on Sunday mornings whilst she was doing the housework. One song would play a lot more than others and that was the all-time classic, Green Green Grass of Home. With both my parents no longer with us, the song always takes me back to those early years when I had no worries, bills to pay and could go down the road to Rocky Park and play football all day long. I used to live just off the Phipps Bridge estate when it was a lot rougher than it is nowadays, where the AFC Wimbledon Foundation are now doing a lot of excellent work. 

This Tom Jones cover also reminds me of the first time I went to Plough Lane in the 1990/91 season for the 1-0 win against Arsenal. I don’t think anyone forgets the feeling and sights of that first game and I remember how green the pitch was, which may sound silly, but when you are only 15 and it's the first game you have seen in the flesh, everything looks bigger and better. The opening lyrics to this song can also be related back to that game and probably also my visit back to Plough Lane on Tuesday night for the Test Event against a Liverpool U23’s team, to achieve the safety certificate to hold 2k people for a limited attendance match. 

🎼The old hometown looks the same

As I step down from the train

And there to meet me is my mama and papa

Down the road I look and there runs Mary

Hair of gold and lips like cherries

It's good to touch the green, green grass of home 🎼

Now I don’t know who Mary is but I did meet my father-in-law at the ground on Tuesday, and I didn’t see anyone with lips like cherries as everyone was wearing face coverings due to social distancing. 

This song was covered by Tom Jones in 1966 which was a great year for England but also when looking back at the 1966/67 season Wimbledon benefited from larger attendances due to the interest in football after the World Cup success the previous season and then saw them drop significantly in the 1966/67 season, partly due to form and also the club had increased the admission prices to four shillings, which was a full shilling increase as the club had a bad financial situation (sounds familiar), but they did sign a young 18 year old goalkeeper by the name of Richard “Dickie” Guy who is now our Club President although I never knew that in his early days he was out of action for a while after a crossbar fell on him when training!

I have previously researched the story of the song and to my amazement, it’s actually about a group of criminals with one of them sentenced to life in prison, with the final lyrics revealing the singer is daydreaming and he’s actually locked in a prison cell on death row awaiting execution. The final line of the song, “Yes, they'll all come to see me, In the shade of that old oak tree, As they lay me 'neath the green, green grass of home” is a reference to the protagonist’s burial in his hometown after his execution.

I think I will keep my meaning of the song and hope the trees around the residential places are not made of oak!

Tuesday’s Test Event was more emotional than I ever thought it was going to be. I had been fortunate to be at some early ‘behind closed door’ games at Plough Lane, but I hadn’t been since late November and this was with my Wimbledon family, at a nearly completed Plough Lane. I left early to get the train from Crawley to Earlsfield and then the short walk down to the ground. I had decided to wear shorts and a hoodie as it's nearly June and nobody should be wearing trousers in early summer, however the weather decided to chuck it down as I started the short 15 minute walk down Garratt Lane. I was meeting George at the ground and he messaged me to say the rain would stop in 20 minutes according to an app he had. I laughed when after exactly 20 minutes the cloud disappeared and the sun appeared. I have asked George for this week's lottery numbers also, just in case. With the pubs now open, Wimbledon fans were already in the area and in either the Corner Pin or By The Horns, which are going to do well out of us returning to the area. I understand the Corner Pin is going to be the “home fans” pub, which will be fun as it's a hundred yards from the North stand entrance which will accommodate the away fans next season. 

Wearing my shorts was going to come back to haunt me again when walking round to the Plough Lane entrances as the pavements are very narrow and allowed a lorry to deliberately, well I thought it was deliberate, to splash a puddle over my legs. I really can’t wait for the North-South walkway to open soon as that would be a nightmare walking on that pavement with a full house in attendance. It was interesting to see where the popular gathering places would be for fans, as this area is so different to the Kingston Road and is on a busy street. I stood on the large pedestrian area outside the West Stand entrance which I think will be a popular area as it will be where the club shop is and the West Stand holds over four thousand fans and entrance for hospitality. It is difficult to know if the layout is going to be the same for all games, as the Test Event had metal railings making up lanes for fans in hospitality, West Stand and South Stand. If it is, then it will take away a lot of the natural space, however if not, it will be a great area for fans to mingle, buy programmes and network. 

We always knew parking was going to be a challenge for match days and this highlighted it for real when you had some cars coming in trying to park on the narrow road right in front of the stadium. I believe the club are approaching local schools and anyone with land that they would be interested in allowing match day fans to park their cars. It was very busy even though there was a attendance of around two thousand. Public transport is a great option, however I understand fans are not keen travelling on packed trains and buses, I travelled during the start of the old ‘normal’ rush hour and my trains were not busy at all and I got a seat, so the new rush hour with people working from home more, could be a good option for fans travelling to games midweek. 

Around 90 minutes before kick off, players were arriving at the ground and walking in from the Wimbledon end of Plough Lane. I am not sure of the plans for players when the season starts, as I thought they would probably meet up at a local venue and get a coach to the ground, but I have a sneaky feeling that Robbo has asked them to be normal, approachable and mingle with the fans walking down the Haydons Road to see play as the womble aces. 

When we got planning permition many years ago, none of us would've thought that the first trip to Plough Lane would be with face coverings and keeping two meters away from someone, but that was the situation for Tuesday and more than likely for much of the summer and autumn. It made for a different kind of atmosphere as people seemed to stay in their bubble and keep their distance, which made it challenging for me as I have been lip reading for most of my life as I have had reduced hearing and these face coverings are not helping me. I was issued with hearing aids about a week before lockdown last March, but as I don’t wear them at home, because I don’t really want to hear my wife or son that loudly at home, they were not working when I tried them so I had some difficulties I wasn’t anticipating. I apologise to anyone that I had to ask them to keep repeating themselves, including Ivor who found it amusing.   

I was in the West Stand on Tuesday in the accessible seating area at the back of the West Stand lower tier, with a designated time slot of 6:40pm. The club had three 20 minute slots on Tuesday night and these were detailed on your match ticket. We had hard copy match tickets with a QR code on them. This is the new way of entering the ground at Plough Lane, however I understand the scanners didn’t like the sun and some QR readers didn’t work for mobile phone tickets as the glare distorted them reading the code. This is exactly the reason you have test events, to highlight these issues and for the club to resolve them.  As we had arrived at Plough Lane early, Mandy from the club allowed us to go in and we were one of the first fans in the ground just before 6pm. This was the first game for many fans, but it was also the case with the majority of the stewards, however the ones I spoke to were all polite and even welcomed us to Plough Lane. The accessible seating entrance was through the double doors under the digital screen and entrance to the club shop and I have to apologise to fans entering this way as you will see a big picture of my ugly mug along with my son Thomas. We were kindly asked to be part of an inclusion and diversity campaign by the club earlier this year and around 20 fans had pictures taken. They are in massive frames around the West Stand which is such a great idea and I am proud to have been asked to be part of it. The good news is that these pictures will be rotated so you won't have to see me all season hopefully. 

The West Stand has two lifts to take people to the General Admission concourse which I understand is part of the fanzone area behind the South West corner. The area is massive and it’s difficult to explain how big, but I reckon you could easily have a 7 a side football match in that space and still have room left over. The smart thing about the West Stand is that its rear loading and you have glass sliding doors to enter the stand. It means that as soon as you enter the fanzone, you can see the inside of the stadium and every stand, which will only increase the excitement and atmosphere on match days. The fanzone and concourse have TV screens at regular points and I understand the stadium has 51 of these TV screens. The food outlets in the West Stand were not open for this game but they are large outlets and a number of them all the way down the concourse. The view from the back of the stand is simply amazing and it takes your breath away. As I entered the ground, Bayzo along with the other goalkeepers came out to warm up and the few fans inside at this point gave them a round of applause. 

Those of you that have known me for years will know my dream for us to have a big screen at Plough Lane and we finally have one of our own. It's in the North-East corner and it had the two teams names, badges along with a countdown timer on it before kick off.  Not sure what else it can do as it only displays the score and time, although I hope we are testing it as we could do with making the fonts bigger for starting line-ups and it would be nice for goalscorer names and minute to be permanently included during the game. See, I am never happy!

With 15 minutes to go before kick off, Chris Phillips on the PA joined us and welcomed us to Plough Lane. I have to say that it gave me goosebumps for the first time which I found surprising but I sense I have been trying to play down the significance of the game and how much I have been looking forward to returning home. Shortly after, Robbo and the management team walked onto the pitch towards the centre circle to thank the fans for coming and contributing to the funding of this £32m stadium. The fans in turn provided them with a standing ovation for the turnaround and guaranteeing League One safety for another season. The sound of only two thousand fans was deafening and we can only imagine the sound with a full house. For this Test Event, every stand had a reduced attendance. I would say that the West Stand 1500, the East Stand around 200, 100 in the Safe Standing South Stand and no more that 50 in the North Stand, which will hold the away fans and I guess we were testing it for when Accrington Stanley visit Plough Lane next season. The beauty of Plough Lane is we can section off part of the North Stand for lower away attendances and sell these seats for home fans. 

Robbo selected a stronger than expected starting line up that included Terell Thomas, Paul Kalambayi and Callum Reilly who had been released days earlier, with his contract expiring at the end of this season. The fact that Callum wanted to play after we released him says so much about him and also about the change in the dressing room. This was about doing the right thing and not treating the player released as a number, but helping them get some game time and possibly impress any scouts or managers in attendance. Callum didn’t do himself any harm when he scored the opening goal in the first ten minutes although he followed this up with a ‘Stevie Gerrard’ slip that almost resulted in a goal. 

Liverpool ended up 3-1 winners on the night and they have some very talented youngsters and I really hope Robbo took the opportunity to speak to the Liverpool U23 head coach and offer him the opportunity for a player, or two from this team to spend more time at Plough Lane next season. 

Thankfully the Test Event was a success and Joe Palmer received confirmation early the following morning that we had been successful and now had the safety certificate The club need to schedule in another two test events in the next few months, the first one with a full capacity West Stand only and then the final one a full capacity game, which will more than likely be a glamour pre-season game. 

Anyone attending on Tuesday night will have noticed that the ground is far from finished behind the scenes and we need to have the catering facilities operating, a 10 meter wall behind the East Stand and a fully kitted out and operating pub. 

Tuesday night was amazing but it also seemed like a sneak preview to what the ground will be like moving forward and I seriously can’t wait for the first competitive game with a full house back on the Green Green Grass at Plough Lane. 

Thank you for reading my blog today. 

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