Tonight the line up for next season has been confirmed and a number of surprises have come about.
First up Cambridge City who were due to be relegated due to ground problems have remained in the Blue Square South. This means that Western Super Mare have now been relegated.And to keep the alignment between North and south Boston & Kings Lynn have gone North and Worcestor City and Redditch have come south so the full list of teams for nest season are as follows: -
AFC Wimbledon, Basingstoke Town, Bath City, Bishop's Stortford, Bognor Regis Town, Braintree TownToday is the 20th anniversary of our amazing day at Wembley and although it's late evening I'm sure if you were there that day or just watching on TV it's a day you will never forget. The day when the worst team in the top flight beat the Best team in the world, well isint that hoe the TV crews described it?
So Happy anniversary everyone.
If your purchasing anything from the various departments of the Amazon Store don't forget that simply just by clicking one of the links on this site first of all will raise funds for the club.
So if you are looking for items to take on holiday with your or need things for the garden click an amazon link on the site and then do your purchases as normal and the club will benefit. If you spend more than £15 they will also deliver it free of charge if you can wait a few extra days for delivery.
As you may be aware the make up of Blue Square North and South isn't fully known yet as their is the possibility that a couple of changes may happen to clubs either in the Blue Square Premier or Blue Square South division Namely i looks like Halifax Town may fold and Cambridge City May be relegated due to ground grading problems.
When the regional split was made it was assumed that teams relegated from the premier division would fit nicely into either the North or South Division, a few years down the line now and we are in the situation where the original line that was made across the country no longer fits and a few clubs sit right on that line.
At the moment 4 teams could fall into either league these are Boston United, Kings Lynn, Worcester City and Redditch United and almost every day their are rumors of who will end up in which division, one day it will be both teams to the west in the north, the following it will be the teams in the East. Today we have Kings Lynn and Worcester in the South but this could still change.
A provisional set-up will be submitted by the FA this week and then clubs will have a time limit to submit any objections prior to the League AGM's where the line up are confirmed. One man who has his finger of the pulse and usually is very accurate is Tony Kempster and if you want to see what he currently thinks the line up you can by clicking here.
Well obviously not just yet as the Reserves are at Kingsmeadow on Saturday afternoon but if you are thinking ahead to the new season 4 pre-season games have been announced and they are as follows: -
| Date | Against | Venue | Kick Off Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19 July | Brentford | Home | 15:00 |
| 22 July | Walton Casuals | Away | 19:45 |
| 23 July | Colliers Wood United | Away | 19:45 |
| 26 July | Salisbury City | Home | 15:00 |
More fixtures are due to be announced and I will add them once they are known.
The details of season Tickets for next season have been posted on the official site so if you are looking at finding out about the prices and applying for one please lick the graphic below: -
Tonight Hampton & Richmond lost 2-0 To Eastbourne Borough in the Blue Square South Play-off final so good luck to Eastbourne next season and it also looks like Hampton could be our closest team and therefore the team we play on Boxing Day and New Years Day.
I have been looking at the details of the Setanta Shield for this season 2007/08 as I think most people knew it was a regional competition starting with The Blue Square North Clubs and the Blue Square South clubs and then the Blue Square Premier clubs enter at the later stages. Well from What I can make out the first couple of rounds are even more regional so you are guaranteed a local derby and therefore reduces expenses for clubs and potentially better attendances.
My early guess that could be totally wrong would be if Hampton don't get promoted in the play off we will face them otherwise we could face Fisher but we will have to wait and see. The first round starts at the beginning of October.
Last week I posted a link for the South London Press Player of The Year and the fact that Jason Goodliffe was 2nd 5% behind the Leader the Crystal Palace Goalkeeper, what I didn't realised was that the link I had contained an error and was the page you go to after you have voted. Jason is now joint top and it's close between the two players so please vote again, from different machines if you can do the correct link is http://www.southlondon-today.co.uk/tn/Sport.cfm?id=6169
No in-depth Analysis, Not lot of text just two graphics, make up your own mind.
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After the elation of the weekend disappointment is going to occur for a number of players over the next few day as they find out if they are part of Terry Brown's plans for 2008/09 Blue Square South campaign. One of the first details of a player not being retained came from th man who scored our winning goal on Saturday when "Mark Debolla posted a thank you message on his Face book page and said he hadn't been offered Terms for the new season" expect a number of other situations like this in the next few days although if terry releases a player he has obviously got someone lined up to take his place.
If it's true that Mark is leaving it no better way for him to sign off than how he did on Saturday so Thanks very much Mark you have a very special place in our history.
Since 5pm on Saturday a number of questions have been asked so I thought I would add some quick frequently asked questions as mentioned below I will expanded on these over the next few days and if any more come up I will add them.
A) When does the
new Season Start -
The Blue Square South division starts one week earlier than the Rymans
League and usually the second week of August for the 2007/08 season
the Blue Square South started 11th August when Ryman Started 18th
August so it could start on the 9th August but this has yet to be
confirmed.
B) Do we wear squad
numbers and names - Teams don't have squad numbers or
names on Shirts in Blue Square South and North.
C) Is their a league cup -
The Setanta Shield is the League Cup and in the early stage is
regionalised before it gets to a stage where you could face a fellow
team from the South, North or National division. I will post more on
this soon.
D) Will we be on TV -
The obvious way is via the Setanta Shield as 1 game in each round is on
Setanta TV but plans for next season haven't been announced yet but we
will keep an eye on this.
E) What round of the FA
Cup Do we enter?
- If this year is anything to go by we enter 1 round later in the 2nd
qualifying round last year 5 Blue Square South sides made it to the 1st
Round proper.
F) What round of the FA
Trophy Do we enter? - If this year is anything to go by we
enter 2 rounds later in the 3rd qualifying round.
G) When are local derby's
played
- Rather than playing derby games on Boxing Day and Easter Monday the
Blue Square leagues play them on Boxing Day and then New Years Day so
it's two almost back to Back games.
Traditionally once the season reaches an end the site goes into a relaxing period between now and pre-season but I will try and do an update at least everyday as we start to look and plan for next season in the Blue Square South, Once the line up of teams is done I will do a preview of each team so please come back regularly to see what is going on.
We are now about 46 hours since the full time whistle at Staines and I'm sure most of us have been in a dreamworld since then. I think I'm capable of doing a round up now so here goes.
I was amaziningly not nervous about the game in the past two years I had been really nervous but this year I took the stance of what will be will be. I arrived at the ground at 13:00 and their was a good number of people already their and so when the team coach arrived at 13:20 the players were greeted by a terefic reception. Terry Brown was one of the first people off the coach and he just had a stunned look on his face to be greeted by such a large number of supporters.
The Turnstiles opened at 13:30 and we all went into the ground looking for the best place to view the game from. I took up a position just by our dugout but where I could see both goals and the ground was filling up nicely. The team were greeted to a great reception during warm up and then as they came out at the start of the game.
The first half itself was very end to end and the big decision of the half was when John main was taken down just outside the box and the Staines Captain was only booked. Just to make it worse on 36 minutes the same player headed in from a corner to put us 1-0 down.
At half time most of us were thinking please not again, not a 3rd year running of losing in the playoffs at Half time everyone said we needed more mussel up front and it was great to see that Terry Brown sent Nic McDonnell n to create problems. The second half continued to be end to end but the more time went on the more we began to think that it clearly wasn't our day.
Terry Brown always said that he would pick a team to do a job and his wild card this game was Mark Debolla on the bench and he introduced him on 66 minutes into the game. With 12 minutes left the fear level for us supporters really began to set in and then a long thrown by Sam Hatton was dropped by the keeper to Nic McDonnell he crossed it low across the box and Luis Cumbers headed it home. At first major confusion occurred we went sure who had scored and then it looked like their keeper may be sent off as he had already been booked and he charged at the ref but the ref just told him to calm down.
With just 10 minutes left the crowd were really behind the team and then it appeared that the linesman had awarded us a penalty he was waving his flag like crazy but yet again the ref decided that he was in charge and would make all the calls so nothing was given.
Then 86 minutes were on the clock and we were awarded a free kick around 25 yards out and Mark De Bolla decided it was his to take he lined it up hit it over the wall and then hit the back of the net down really low. The players went crazy the fans went even more crazy and do you know what my first thought was? Please don't conceded, it's a strange things that go through your mind.
When the 4th official held up the board to say 4 minutes injury time I wasn't overly worried they won a corner and the goal keeper came up to create a problem but his clearance went backwards and out of play. It was then a case to watch the ref when he would signal PROMOTION. The whistle blew and the pitch was invaded it was total relief that we had done what we had set out to do. It was a chance to find friends and celebrate or just hug total strangers.
I got on to th pitch and knew a number of people I wanted to celebrate with were in the stand so whilst everyone ran to the tunnel I went straight across and found some people, but then a lovely surprise sitting at the back of the stand with a huge smile on his face was Robbie Earle who had arrived with David Barnard both were so pleased that we had been promoted and once again it was very special that they could share the day.
As we left the ground it started to rain but who cared, and on the journey to Kingsmeadow we even took a wrong turning but it didn't matter we arrived back at Kingsmeadow and it was packed just time to grab a bottle of Champers before the team arrived to a heroes reception. The players went to put their bags in the dressing room and all returned with bottles of champagne. somehow i managed to be right in from of Jason Goodliffe as he opened his bottle of champagne and got completely covered in it but I couldn't of been happier.
Kingsmeadow continued to rock Ivor interviewed a number of players and Terry Brown on the stage before an evening of drinking and dancing started, We are Wimbledon and then the Beatles "Yellow & Blue, Yellow & Blue Wombles" were the first tracks, what do you mean thats the not the name of the song? :)
I eventually staggered away from Kingsmeadow about 11:00 but not before I had celebrated with a number of fans, we have such a special club and everybody should take credit for this.
Then Sunday was spent reading various reports and for us on face book swapping stories and looking at each others pictures some from the link I posted yesterday. Watching Video and keep pinching myself that we did win and therefore get promoted. Then Just as I started to return a bit I read the O/S and saw the comments from Beasant & Sanchez and that pushed be back to the cloud 12 level again.
At this stage their is not a lot more that needs to be said, I will write some more up later but following out 2-11 victory at Staines ensuring promotion I thought I would post some links of pictures video and Video Clips from Yesterday.
The goals were shown on Sky Sports News Last night and you
can view them here.
For a more in-depth highlights package click here
Some Brilliant pictures of the day can be viewed here
And finally have a look at this one, it may make you smile (even more
click here
Thanks to some work by Mike Arrowsmith who lives in Scotland but is flying down for the game we are introducing a different page for the updates this afternoon this hopefully will ensure that the services will remain up and running no matter what the demand is on the page. The important details you need is the page address and this is.
As always I will try and post the team news as early as I can but usually about 14:45 and then all the action from kick off. If anyone does have my mobile number and their is a problem with the updates please send me a text and I will either revert back to the usual page or if that fails the AFCWGB.co.uk guest book.
One place to guarantee th current score is via the text service by texting AFCW Goals to 60300 you will get the current score if you get the line up it means the score is 0-0 each message cost 25p with proceeds going to the club. If you want to be sent every message text 60300 AFCW Goals Start to 60300 as soon as I send a message you will get it once again each message costs 25p
This afternoon's game is just huge the simple situation is the winner gets promoted to the "Blue Square South Division" the match has to be decided this afternoon and therefore we could have extra time and penalties.
If your one of the lucky people who got a ticket make sure we get behind the team from the start to the very end of the game Terry and the team really appreciate our help and it encourages them during games especially if we are under pressure.
If you don't have a ticket I hope you can follow the game via the various update services see below and above as we try and cover all bases.
Sorry to repeat a post that I made just the other day but just a reminder that Radio Wdon will be up and running this afternoon broadcasting the signal from Radio Wye who are from the Staines area. so if you paste either of the following links into your music players you should be able to listen to the match.
If you don't have a ticket for Saturday's game and are wondering how to follow the action you have two main ways the first is the Radio Wdon server should be up and running although it wont be our commentary team we are piggybacking Radio Wye service as they have a limited capacity.
I will be doing the updates and hope that these will manage to cope with the pressure but more about this either Friday Night or Saturday Morning.
If you want to check how long before kick off on Saturday click here
Although I had my ticket sorted I went over tonight to pick up a couple for people that didn't have them, these people are Season Ticket Holders. I arrived at Staines at about 5:40 after getting a cab direct from the station with two other wombles.
On arrival I reckon about 150 people were in front of me and it was a fun hour and a quarter as we waited for the office to open. A Staines Official came out every so offer to inform people the tea bar was open and how long before the ticket office opened.
By the time the ticket office opened I reckon 350 fans were waiting and it was entertaining when Staines Manager and players turned up and the car park was already full. By my estimate 95% of the supporters waiting appeared to be our supporters and with around 850 tickets on sale that will give you an idea of the additional numbers that we will have at the game.
When the ticket office opened thee service was very quick and everybody who wanted a ticket got one by the end of the evening apparently less than 20 tickets were left.
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