AFC Wimbledon vs Windsor & Eton - The Fans Stadium, London - Saturday 18th February 2006

With a trip the Bernabeu to see Arsenal play Real Madrid only 3 days away, this is about as close as you can get to an appropriate warm-up!! This game was heavily hyped by Soccer AM, as some of their celebrity mates are part-time footballers for the 2 teams involved - MC Harvey for AFC Wimbledon, and Ralf Little for Windsor & Eton. An Arsenal-free weekend because of our cup exit, plus a couple of friends that live a bus ride away from the ground, and a mere £9 to get into the terraces, all helped persuade me.

But as well as all that, the fact that AFC Wimbledon are a fans club, dead against the seedier commercial side of football, means that it is an absolute pleasure to support them with my £9. Fans influence here means that you can go for a pint in the excellent bar next to the ground, get some good matchday food (because even non-League fans don't want to eat the crap that most Premiership grounds force their fans to pay through the nose for), and pick up programmes and fanzines that are the fans voice against MK Dons in particular, and all that is wrong with football in general. Standing on the main terrace behind the goal, it is striking how small the ground is - and parts of it have recently been expanded. But, the club are going one step at a time, and it can't be too long before they climb back up the leagues again - certainly the support they have makes that quite possible.

The first half of the game was little short of terrible - no decent football on show, in fact, no football at all really, as both sides couldn't keep the ball for more than 30 seconds. There was plenty of singing from the terrace, and a great atmosphere all round - some of it of course directed at Tim Lovejoy in the main stand. The second half was immeasurably better, with some decent chances for both sides. AFC Wimbledon took the lead about 20 minutes into the second half, with a great finish inside the area. Helen Chamberlain jumped up and revealed her AFC shirt. No sooner had the celebrations stopped, than Windsor and Eton were level. And that was the way it stayed.

You could tell that this was non-League football by the refereeing, which was awful!! At one point, a Windsor player caught the ball in the area - he was on the floor and had both hands on the ball - which the ref saw fit to do nothing about! It all reminded me of Mike Riley!

Going to AFC Wimbledon reminded me of what football used to be like - terraces, affordable prices, a poorer standard of football than we enjoy today in the Premiership, but that doesn't matter so much, because the experience is so much better. That, plus a group of fans that are so much closer to the overall well-being of the club, and can influence it so much more directly, creates a sense of belonging that bigger clubs have helped to destroy for their fans recently. If that ever comes back to bite clubs like Arsenal, they'd better hope there are enough people like those at AFC Wimbledon to resurrect them. This club are a beacon of what can happen if enough people want it to - I will be giving them £9 again some time soon.

On to the Bernabeu, I'm sure I'll barely notice the difference!!