Welcome back to Plough Lane….

Who’s idea or plan was it to have the third and final test event all wrapped up in our first competitive fixture at Plough Lane.

 

Nobodies in reality as the pandemic and Boris delaying things (We are used to this by now) meant that we had no possible way of getting the second test event completed and then to get the full attendance needed, meant it had to our first home game. We sailed through the second test event against Scunthorpe which the club deserve all the praise we can give as I for one, and I was not alone, felt getting four thousand people interested in a friendly against Scunthorpe was challenging, let alone them turning up and the club looking after them.  Everything went really well with the exception of Scunthorpe turning us over 2-1 at home, but who really reads anything into preseason games anyway!?

 

Robbo continued where he left of last season and we went to Doncaster Rovers and showed all the resilience  and determination needed to get points away from home. McCormack scored the winner at Doncaster and we then did the unthinkable and were victorious in the Carabao Cup 1^st round game away at the Valley. A solitary strike by Paul Osew after a 44 pass move was enough to get another away game vs Northampton Town next midweek.   

 

The build up from Wednesday onwards was all around final arrangements for the test event and the dreaded situation with tickets. I have openly discussed on our podcast that we are a League One club with a non-league set up. That’s not to moan about any of our club employees, but it’s a simple observation I have had since we were promoted to the Football League in 2011. We may have sorted out the ground improvements we needed to stay in the League, but that was from grants and some money stored away for a rainy day, but we never had the funds or capacity to increase the administration side of the club. Anyone that visited the club during the week would have seen David Charles and his team in a cramped office, running a multi million pound company. To think the only time fans felt that it wasn’t working was due to a limited capacity game vs Sutton, is a credit to the hard work and dedication they showed.

 

Moving to Plough Lane would have seen the administration and club employee head count improve surely, but that would be ignoring that in December 2019 at a heated meeting at Kingsmeadow, we had to release bonds and significantly scale down the nice things to have for Plough Lane. It feels that with the global Covid pandemic taking our attentions away from football, we have all arrived back in 2021, forgetting the hardship the club have had to deal with and staff numbers was a definite cost cutting that was needed.  

 

That’s the reality of the situation, but it can’t totally account for the trouble we have had with our new ticketing software that was launched last season. The Dons Trust have communicated excellently last week and did all they could to help reassure fans that even if our ticketing software wasn’t showing you that your ST was purchased, you would gain access to the ground. The only feedback I would have for the club is that we sometimes need to be more visual on updates and that’s why Luke Mackenzie from the Dons Trust Board was asked to be on our short-notice Friday Night Live and be live from Plough Lane to show people visually where they needed to go from 11am.

 

I fully understand the club are manic and running around behind the scenes with back to back long days, but communication is key in these situations and we also have to understand that our older generation of fans are not stuck on social media picking up the club updates. 

 

Saturday was such an emotional driven day that I doubt I was alone in being absolutely cream crackered by the evening.

 

I was ok until I started looking at social media around 8am on Saturday morning and then I started seeing loads of my mates posting pictures of Plough Lane back in the 90’s, pictures of Kingsmeadow and also the people that had been part of our journey but were no longer with us. I mentioned the older generation earlier and this was demonstrated to me how they struggle to communicate, especially with each other. My father-in-law was a ST holder at Kingsmeadow and got to know loads of his fellow fans in the disabled area at the athletics end. When I was with him as his carer for the Scunthorpe game, he literally burst out in a massive smile whenever he saw a fellow fans from Kingsmeadow arrive at Plough Lane. He then said to me that he is so pleased the person was still alive, which made me chuckle and then instantly understand that he had no way of finding out if they had survived the pandemic and their own health battles as they are not all active on social media. 

 

We arrived at Plough Lane for around 1:30pm and Mandy at the club had kindly arranged for some blue badge parking near the ground. We went into Lidl opposite the stadium to get some snacks for my son as he don’t need gourmet food just yet!! Accessible seating is superb at Plough Lane and has made my father-in-law and my wife’s match-day experience really enjoyable and easy for them. In through the doors for the club shop and lifts up to the 1^stfloor concourse in the West Stand. All one level and we have the South-West Corner balcony as out ST seats. I am extremely lucky to be a carer for my wife on matchdays and also have a ST for my son directly below us. The accessible seating balcony has so much room that I have had to get a lead for my son so he can’t run away down the West Stand. Its not a lead but I have no idea what they call it, although my son was leading me down the West Stand concourse instead of me.

 

My wife went and got our match-day food which is brilliant and I recommend the Chicken Balti pie, which is £4.50 and great value. Anyone that knows me will know I had frustrations with soft drinks at Kingsmeadow as they were never cold and the only way I got them cold was by leaving them on the floor in the winter games for them to freeze up. That is no longer needed at Plough Lane as they are really cold already and loads of them. Some of the pricing for coffee, tea etc feels expensive, but I am not really a hot drink person at football although I did notice that they sell Bovril which is a typical old-school hot drink for football. It reminds me of good friend Nick Palma when he wanted to show his colours in the Reebok stadium it was called then, and left his jacket/jumper on the coach. Game went to extra time at Bolton and Nick was regularly buying any hot drink to wrap his hands around it to keep warm. His face when Peter Beardsley scored the winner at the beginning of extra time was brilliant!

 

I had a little wander and went down the West Stand staircase which leads into the pub and then out to the South Stand Fan-zone area. I will happily concede that I had doubts how this staircase would work and how they would fit a pub into an area that seem small and taller than it was in width, but I will happily say I was impressed with what I saw and I know it was worked on all through the night and has more to come. As I walked down the stairs the fact it is in what I have referred to as the dungeon, meant that the sound was really loud and I heard fans singing Wimbledon songs which brought an instant smile to my face. This will be rocking on match-days and I would think it would be great at half time during the winter to keep warm. The South Stand fan-zone area has so much potential its scary! A lot bigger than it looks like in pictures and it was an area full of the excitement and noise you associate with the first home game of the season. I found the Dons Trust Kiosk towards the South/East stand corner and was please to see Jane Lonsdale who was on duty for the day. Kingsmeadow always felt a temporary home for me, yet we spent 18 years there and built up a match-day routine that I strangely felt anxious about when I thought about Plough Lane. At Kingsmeadow I knew where all my friends were in the main stand, I could go to the middle bar and find others and then I could go into the club shop and Dons Trust Kiosk to see my other friends. 

 

How would I find them at Plough Lane?

 

Where would we meet pre-match if they were in a different stand?

 

Would they hide from me now that they had a way?!

 

Well within minutes my anxiety was gone as I saw loads of familiar faces and as I was approaching the Dons Trust Kiosk, some of my long time friends “The Burton’s” walked round the corner. Now “The Burton’s” are a family of 6 guys and 1 lady and it was always a running joke that Mr & Mrs B, as we all called them, never had a tv and just had babies, but they were the best parents I knew after my own. Mark, Murray and Caddick were at the game and I have never been so pleased to see them. The pandemic has highlighted to me how important family and friends are, so much so that we moved from Crawley to Epsom in the summer to be closer to both. That awkward moment when you don’t know if they want a fist bump, elbow bump or the old fashioned handshake was sorted instantly as Mark greeted me with a handshake and a man hug.  Whilst we all know that the Covid cases are still in their tens of thousands, I, like many people I know what to have some sort of normality whilst eliminating the risks taken. My wife has had three deaths in the family (two for Covid and another when Covid stopped someone in her family going for a check up, which resulted in them sadly passing away) and I am conscious of the importance of staying safe, but the moment you see someone you have not seen in person for 16 months is brilliant and made the day feel normal, if we even know what normal is nowadays. 

 

The South Stand fan-zone was amazing and will only get better. Loads of pop up catering from Fish & Chips, pasta, kebabs and loads more looked great but I was full up already with my Chicken Balti pie.  I can’t wait for the Gillingham game where I am on my own and can explore much more than I did on Saturday.

 

Back to my seat in time for the music build up to the game. “Phillo”Chris Phillips to some, is on the PA and playing Hey Jude followed by We are Wimbledon which the whole ground is singing along to. Now the PA at Kingsmeadow was a bit tinny and Mikey T would always say he couldn’t really turn them up as the tannoy things just couldn’t handle it. Plough Lane PA is a different ball game and my son was bopping his head to the music and smiling as if acknowledging that this is decent music. Five minutes to go and Robbo along with his management team, which is endless it now seams in all white training gear, walk out to the half way line and clap the fans who respond in kind. I love this and it is something they should do at every game. It just feels right and makes us feel connected even more to them, just as the players do. The team then comes out and WOW, just WOW.

 

The club had a minute applause that was introduced by some really emotional words from “Phillo” to remember those who are no longer with us, which I know set loads of people off and tears were flowing. I thought back to people that were part of our journey but sadly no longer with us and just raised a smile and felt them amongst us at that moment.

 

The first ten minutes of the game were just a blur and I spent just as much time looking at the scenes in the South Stand and the excitement of everyone around me. Typically Will Nightingale got the first goal from a Anthony Hartigan cross and the place went mad. Sometimes things just happen that just seem like they were meant to be. Daniel Csoka picks up an injury in the run up to the Doncaster Rovers game back in November last year and Will Nightingale gets a way back in the team for the first game at PL and was made captain. Will scores the first on Saturday and you know the football gods know exactly how to play this out. 

 

Of course they thought it would be fun for Bolton to respond and go into the break 2-1 up and then score a third early on in the second half. I don’t think I was alone thinking that Bolton had set up the classic fight back and make this game a magical finale for the first game with fans. I thought back to the night at Selhurst Park when Villa were 3-1 up under Ron Atkinson and Oyvind Leonardsen scoring an 89^th minute winner to finish 4-3. Robbo made two subs bringing on Dapo Mebude and Aaron Pressley for McCormick and Palmer , then a few minutes later introduced Henry Lawrence for Nesta Guinness Walker.  NGW had a tough afternoon, yet I felt we could of helped him out and sussed what Bolton were doing early on. Robbo talks about players working it out on the pitch for themselves and this was a classic situation where Bolton’s number 11 Bakayoko tagged himself to NGW on the touchline and every goal kick was aimed at him to win the header. It needed Will or Ben to swap and stop that tactic from being used. NGW looked disappointed when he was taken of along with Palmer and McCormick, however this is all about the “we not me” philosophy and they will be massive for us this season. It felt to me that McCormick had placed loads of pressure on himself to perform and that’s difficult when you have 9k plus fans and a first day game like this. He is an excellent player and his partnership with Assal will be great to watch this season. Assal was being targeted in the same way a young Lionel Messi was in his early days, when opposition players took turns to foul him to avoid the totting up process referee’s use in games. Pressley won every header and Assal finally got into the box and the penalty was always going to be given. We interviewed Aaron on SNL the other week and I asked him about penalties and he said he had no problem taking them and that’s what he did on Saturday. The next goal was what dreams are made off – Dapo gets the ball on the halfway line, gets a favourable bounce and he is on his way. He slots the ball into the bottom corner in front of the South stand and Plough Lane erupts, I smash my hand on the steel beams above me and we all lose sense of our emotions for 10 seconds!

 

I will never forget the sight of the South Stand going absolutely mental and the sound. My wife has tinnitus and that sound set that off and I spoke to many of my mates on the way out who said they couldn’t hear out of one ear.

 

That comeback made Plough Lane seem like it has been our “home” for years and we had now opened all the boxes we moved with from Kingsmeadow and this was ours for good.

 

Gillingham on Tuesday should be great and how convenient that Mr Evans has got a touchline ban already, but don’t worry, we know he will be there and he will be welcomed in Plough Lane style.