Site produced by Paul Raymond and running since 1999

March 2001

31/03/2001
Before I get into the Dons News can I just say how sad I was to here about the death of Arsenal Hero David "Rocky" Rocastle today. David had been suffering with a form of cancer a sad loss. And my thoughts are with his friends and family.

Just about to depart for the trip to Bolton.

Couple of stats for you our form over the last 6 games has been WDDWDD Lets hope that pattern continues for today. (Thanks to Martin D for that Information)

After today the number of free days between each game to the end of the season is as follows 3, 2, 2, 3, 2, 3, 2, 3, 2 & 4

With matches taking place in the country today I have added the Live Scores link again to find out the latest scores click here the times given are European so remember to take an hour off for the UK time.

30/03/2001
As the team have headed north to Bolton one of the new players is in the squad. David Nielsen has made the trip and could well be in with a shout of being on the bench. David Nielsen will have squad number 36.

Also in the squad is the return of Trond Andersen after he has missed the last two games.

The Fulham away game will be all ticket with more ticket news available at the next game at Selhurst.

29/03/2001
Thanks Teamtalk for using horrible headlines!! After a hard day at work to get back and see the headline "Kenny wants to move on" you always fear the worst but on reading the article it is about the injury that has kept Kenny out for almost a year and the fact that he just wants to get on with playing football again.

Mark williams has updated his site where he comments about his goal and also adds a final line about Graham Taylor.

Andreas Lund hopes to be back for the start of the new season following his injury. He is picking up training now and hopes that next season can be in with a shout of banging in the goals.

28/03/2001
Mark Williams tonight scored his first International goal for Northern Ireland to make the score 1-1 against Bulgaria before the team went 4-1 down but then pulled it back to a 4-3 defeat. The goal came via a Michael Hughes Corner lets hope we can see some more of this in Dons games in the next few weeks.

Kenny Cunningham played in the Republics 3-0 victory over Andorra.

Once again Trond only managed to sit on the Bench for Norway in there 2-1 defeat to Belarus.

On the Wimbledon Official Site their is a very good interesting interview with Patrick Agyemang well worth a read.

27/03/2001
With last nights reserve game being off my opinions of our new signings will have to wait for a bit.

On Wednesday there is a full program of International Games although their is a fair possibility that Kenny Cunningham could well be rested for the Republic of Irelands trip to Barcelona to play Andorra. Both Mark Williams and Michael Hughes should be available for Northern Irelands match.

Although things are very quite at the moment someone bumped into Gareth Ainsworth at "The Ideal Home Exhibition" and he mentioned that he hopes to be back for the Birmingham game. He also added that he was pleased that the Crewe game was called off as it means it is one less game that he misses.

26/03/2001
Tonight's reserve game against Arsenal has been called off due to a waterlogged pitch.

Last week someone mentioned that we could well be in line for an Italian Keeper well today the official site reports the following. "Tommaso Berni just 18 from Milan is on trial with The Dons for the remainder of the season. Tommaso who is highly rated in Italian football circles will be playing for both the reserves and our Academy under 19's, with a view to signing in the Summer.

Also on the official site Terry Burton talks about the backlog of fixtures that we have. He is still not ruling out the playoffs but is only looking at one game at a time.

The reserves are due to be in action tonight against Arsenal. The match is due to be played at Borehamwood FC ground with a 7pm kick off.

The match should see the Dons debuts off David Nielsen and Matthew Booth and I hope to be at the game to report how they get on.

25/03/2001
While we didn't play this weekend other teams around us did. West Brom had a 2-1 victory and are now in 5th place 14 points ahead of us but have played 4 games more than us. below us Barnsley had a 3-1 victory and are now just 1 point behind us but have played 4 games more than us. Burnley had a 3-1 victory yesterday and so the gap above us is now 4 points but we have two games in hand. The next few weeks could have a major impact on where we end up by the end of the season.

Mixed results for the dons on International duty on Saturday. Kenny Cunningham was on a winning Republic of Ireland side who beat Cyprus 4-0 . A couple of Wimbledon fans and readers of this site were at the match and I am sure a good time was had by all. Mark Williams and Michael Hughes were unlucky to be on a side that lost 1-0 to Czech Republic and Trond Andersen watched the Norway's 3-2 defeat to Poland from the Subs bench.

I have now closed the vote on where do you think we will finish this season but due to a slight problem I am unable to provide the full result. From what I can remember 4 people thought we would get Promotion,15 people felt we could make the playoff's, 67 people thought we would just miss the playoffs, 76 thought we would finish 7-10th. Thanks to everyone that voted and I have now added a new poll.

Mark Williams has updated his site from Northern Ireland's camp prior to Saturday's game. You can read what he has to say by clicking here

24/03/2001
Kenny Cunningham, Michael Hughes and Mark Williams are all starting today for their national teams.

Although the transfer deadline has now passed reports out of Scotland say that we will have scouts at the Scotland Vs Belgium match to keep an eye on Billy Dodds of Rangers.

The result of the Blackburn Man Of The Match game is as follows: -

Jason Euell 7 votes 37%
Michael Hughes 4 votes 21%
Kelvin Davis 3 votes 16%
Andy Roberts 2 votes 11%
Patrick Agyemang 1 vote 5%
Kevin Cooper 1 vote 5%
Par Karlsson 1 vote 5%

23/03/2001
With no club match this weekend news might but be a bit on the quite side but I will continue to provide all the latest news and stories on the Dons.

Four first team players could well be in with shouts for starting on Saturday with Kenny Cunningham, Mark Williams, Michael Hughes and Trond Andersen all on International duty. I will keep you updated on how they all do.

Monday nights reserve game at Arsenal (played at Borehamwood) could be quite good with both Booth and Nielsen making their dons debuts.

Michael Hughes has said he want to remain at the Dons and see out the 2.5 years on his contract, he is pleased about being back in the first team.

22/03/2001
Am I getting Old? (oh don't answer that at the back) but today was transfer deadline day. A few years ago it used to be one of the most exciting days of the seasons with teams going out and buying players for silly sums to try and guarantee them a place in Europe, Promotion or to avoid the drop but today most of the deals were loans and only about half a dozen involved money being transferred. well anyway along with David Nielsen receiving international clearance we completed the move for Matthew Booth till the end of the season.

Talking on the Official Site he said. "In South Africa we are saturated by Premiership football on TV so I know all about Wimbledon and how big a club they are." he also added "That is everyone's aim to play there and Wimbledon are a club that should be in the Premiership. I would love the chance to help them do that. From what I have seen of the boys in training here today, there is several very good players here and hopefully I can become one of them."

His first game for the dons is likely to be against Arsenal Reserves on Monday night at Borehamwood.

No players appear to have left us although you sometimes get deals that are announced the following day. The capture of Matthew Booth wood seem to suggest that he would partner Mark Williams in Central Defence while Kenny Cunningham will revert back to his old Right Back slot, but we will have to see till Saturday week what happens.

Although no one left one player came close with Jonathan Hunt deciding against a move to Peterborough where he could of linked up with his old manager Barry Fry. He apparently agreed to sign on Wednesday night but this morning changed his mind.

21/03/2001
With the transfer deadline the stories linking players are speeding up latest to be linked is a loan move for Shaun Newton of Charlton while another report say we are about to sign South African Under 23 player Matthew Booth, a 6'6" South African centre back it looks like the deal could be on loan till the end of the season.

The reserves had a 1-1 draw at West Ham on Tuesday evening although Michael Thomas was sent off. His sending off came just before half time for foul and abusive language when we were 1-0 up.

David Nielsen has joined the Dons after a successful trial at the club.

20/03/2001
Terry Burton has been banned from the touchline for two games and finned £2,000 following his words he had with the linesman at the Wycombe replay. The games he will be confined to the stand for are the Wolves away game and also the Birmingham game at Selhurst.

The reserves are in action at West Ham tonight and this could see a run out for David Nielsen, this will be the last chance to see what the club think of him and weather they want to sign him prior to Thursday's deadline.

19/03/2001
Congratulations to Michael Hughes who has been named in a revised Northern Ireland Squad after Sammy Maclroy the manager watched him during the Blackburn Game.

Teamtalk reports that the latest player being watched is Patrick Agyemang who is apparently being watched by Bradford and Manchester United. If two identical bids come in I wonder which one Pat would think about!

With deadline day being Thursday bids are rumoured for Jason Euell while we could make a move for Nathan Ellington of Bristol Rovers.

If you haven't voted for Man Of The Match for The Blackburn game please click the link below.

18/03/2001
One more thing about yesterday why was Mark Hughes allowed to Stamp on Mark Williams head and no action be taken? I am sure if this had been the other way round action would have been taken but our Mark doesn't do this type of thing.

Right let's give you the details of yesterday's trip.

I left home at 09:00 to get the 10:20 train from Euston on arrival at Euston we found out that the 10:20 was now the 10:25 and rather than getting to Preston at 13:00 it would get in at 14:40 this was bad enough but to make things worse as we went to get the train at 10:19 the train was pulling out. The member of staff said that it was due to leave at 10:20!! So our new route was now the 10:45 to Manchester due in at Manchester at about 14:15. One of the people I was with (Marc Jones of W&WW) knew the Stockport Womble Baggy who he was due to meet and phoned him up. Baggy offered to pick us up at Stockport and drive us to Blackburn. Next problem train was running late arrived at Stockport at 14:30!!. We got in Baggy's car and arrived at Ewood Park at 15:20 we were let in for free and watched the game. To get home Baggy gave us a lift to Preston! but our train was 30 minutes late arriving and was due in London at 21:30 but arrived at 23:00 I then had a nightmare train journey home. If anyone tries to say that Wimbledon Fans don't travel tell them this story!!

Ok you are all bright people that read this site so work this one out for me. Yesterday morning I left home at 09:00 I arrived home at 00:00 some 15 hours latter so why did I only see 65 minutes of football at Ewood Park? Confused you should be I will explain more latter in the day but for now.

The dons came home with a well deserved point from Blackburn after a 1-1 draw we took the lead through Jason Euell just after the break but just 15 minutes before the end Matt Jansen scored to make it 1-1.

The Man Of The Match vote is now open for the Blackburn game please click below to vote.

Although he is not listed in the Man Of The Match Vote my vote goes to The Stockport Womble Baggy who was a complete star today thanks mate owe you big time.

If you want to here what ex It's a Knockout Host Stuart Hall click on the following link. BBC Radio 5 Report.

I'm shattered so I am off to bed. :)

17/03/2001
So Blackburn today and a happy St Patrick's Day to everyone, to honour this we will be wearing our Green kit today.

Kevin Cooper should make his debut for us today in the number 11 shirt after it was vacated by Marcus Gayle.

The result of the Grimsby Man Of The Match vote was as follows: -

Kelvin Davis 7 votes 50%
Peter Hawkins 2 votes 14%
Neal Ardley 2 votes 14%
Mark Williams 1 vote 7%
Patrick Agyemang 1 vote 7%
Michael Hughes 1 vote 7%

A new vote will open tonight once I get back from Blackburn.

16/03/2001
The Crewe game on Saturday week (24th March) has been postponed the new date has been announced as Tuesday 24th April 2001.

Both Peter Hawkins and Damien Francis have signed new contracts that will last for the next 3 and a half years. Nice One Guy's

Saturday see's us make the long trip to Blackburn to face an inform team lets hope we can come back with some points.

15/03/2001
Congratulations to Neil Jenkins who has been called up for the England Under 18's team to play Poland at White Heart Lane next week.

The transfer deadline is in fact next Thursday and not this week as I have posted.

Kevin Cooper has completed his move to the Dons to see him in action click here. Thanks to the person on W&WW guestbook who found the goal. (Download size is just over 500kb.)

Congratulations to Trond and Kenny who have been called up for International games a week on Saturday. This could put our game against Crewe in doubt.

I would like to wish all the best and get well soon to Stale Solbakken who had an short spell with the Dons. Stale was training with his club in Denmark when he collapsed with a suspected heart attack some reports say that they couldn't get a pulse for over 5 minutes. Since leaving us Stale has regained the form that he had prior to joining us and for a player of his fitness to suffer a heart attack is quite frightening. Although he is in hospital they say that he is out of danger.

The Sun has reported that Kevin Cooper has joined the Dons but so far no official confirmation.

14/03/2001
So far know news that the signing of Kevin Cooper has been completed. A deal has been agreed with Stockport for an upfront fee of £750,000 but so far the player is still considering the move.

Tonight's reserve game at Sutton is off due to a waterlogged pitch.

Just got back from Grimsby and we are back in 11th place in the table. Was it a case of 2 points dropped or 1 point gained? Yes we were leading going into the last minute of the game but with Watford and Nottingham Forest both losing the gap to the play-off zone has closed.

We took the lead through Patrick Agyemang after good work from Michael Hughes.

Trond Andersen missed his first game of the season tonight (I haven't gone to bed yet :)).

The result of the Man Of The Match vote for the Palace game was as follows: -

Patrick Agyemang 21 votes 33%
Andy Roberts 17 votes 27%
Kelvin Davis 14 votes 22%
Jonathan Hunt 3 votes 5%
Mark Williams 3 votes 5%
Michael Hughes 2 votes 3%
Darren Holloway 2 votes 3%
Kenny Cunningham 2 votes 3%

A new vote has now been added for the Grimsby game click below to vote.

13/03/2001
Back off to sunny Grimsby shortly for tonight's game, lets hope this time it is on.

The players are already up there and so far there are no new additions to the squad.

The Man Of The Match vote will close tonight once I get back from Grimsby.

David Nielsen has apparently had his trial extended for a few more days but so far hasn't been offered a contract.

12/03/2001
The transfer deadline is this Thursday so we could see quite a few stories in the next few days, but at the moment most of the stories seem to be about players joining us.

It is rumoured today that we will sign Kevin Cooper from Stockport in an £800,000 deal and the following is from soccernet: -

"Kevin is 26, 5' 6" tall and was signed from Derby 2 years ago. Cooper is a threat from midfield who loves nothing better than running at defenders. Scored four league goals last term and always a danger in the penalty box. One of the most popular players at Stockport County".

Dont forget to vote for the Man Of The Match in the Palace Game click below to vote.

11/03/2001
Neal Ardley put in a surprise appearance this afternoon and he said to me that "there was no way that Patrick's second goal was offside". Mark Williams was very upbeat as always and Gareth Ainsworth said he should be back in about 3 weeks time.

In the bar after the game was David Nielsen the player who is currently on trial with us. He hopes to secure a contract with us and looks forward to playing fairly soon.

It's reported that Jason Euell has asked to come off the transfer list and wants to stay at the Dons. Some of the papers had Charlton linked with a move for him. Alan Curbishley has watched him quite a bit over the last few weeks including Tuesday night at Gillingham.

Also today we have been linked with Billy Dodds of Rangers this is a little bit of a left over deal from the Marcus Gayle deal. To speed up the deal the Dodds talk's were put off but a deal worth £750,000 could see Dodds join the dons.

Well done to everyone that turned up at centre court this afternoon. it was really nice to see so many wimbledon fans in shirts in Wimbledon on a Sunday.

This afternoon at 13:00 Mark Williams and Gareth Ainsworth will be in the Center Court shopping centre in Wimbledon to help launch a company called "AutoValet" a hand washing car company. The first 50 under 16 year olds wearing a Wimbledon shirt or scarf will be given a free WFC clock. If you are in the area pop in and show your support.

10/03/2001
Ok read this carefully it may take a while for you to realise it: -

For the first time since Saturday 11th November 2000 we are not 11th in the Table!!

We are 10th

It takes a bit of getting used to but doesn't it sound good.

Anyway 1-0 victory over Palace with Wu Tang getting the goal. We could of had more and Wu Tang had another ruled out for an offside call.

Another pleasing sight today was the return of Michael Hughes who came on for about the last 15 minutes of the match.

I have added the new Man Of The Match vote for the Palace Game and with us playing on Tuesday night the vote will close in the early hours of Wednesday morning following my return from Grimsby. Please click below to vote.

Cant leave tonight without saying congratulations to Lawrie Sanchez and Terry Gibson and all at Wycombe following there 2-1 FA Cup victory over Leicester

Some reports say we could see the return of Michael Hughes this afternoon against Crystal Palace. This will bee a good boost as we are without Marcus, Gareth and Damien

The result of the Man Of The Match vote for the Gillingham game including the vote for Gareth is as follows: -

Darren Holloway 5 votes 38%
Andy Roberts 3 votes 23%
Marcus Gayle 2 votes 15%
Kelvin Davis 1 vote 8%
Gareth Ainsworth 1 vote 8%
Kenny Cunningham 1 vote 8%

A new vote will open after the Palace game today.

09/03/2001
Saturday see's the "Ron Noades Cup" match where the two teams that rent Selhurst clash. Palace are Away for the match and lets hope that the result is better when we met earlier in the season.

Saturday will see a couple of changes in the line up with Mark Williams back in the squad and also someone in for Marcus Gayle following his move to Rangers. With Gareth Ainsworth out injured it will be interesting to see who plays.

08/03/2001
Sorry about the delay in updates I tried to do one from one of these phone point machines but I pressed the wrong button and it disappeared. :(

First off Marcus Gayle has moved to Glasgow Rangers in a deal worth 1 million pounds. Marcus has had his critics this season and not seen as much first team action as he would of hoped but he will always have a special place in our hearts. Most peoples favourite Marcus Gayle moment will be the FA Cup goal against Manchester United at Selhurst when we won 1-0. Any way To Marcus and his family hope all goes well and lets hope we have a chance to say good luck when you are next down Selhurst way.

All the best Marcus.

Even before Marcus has settled in Glasgow has his replacement been lined up David Nielsen has joined us on loan from FC Copenhagen but most of us will remember him from his loan spell at Grimsby where he scored and was there Man Of The Match.

Talking of Man Of the Match award I must have set the Gillingham vote up while half asleep as I managed to put Gareth Ainsworth in the squad (and someone voted for him as well) so before anyone mentions it I have spotted it.

As you know last night (Wednesday) I was at Anfield for the Youth FA Cup match it was a brilliant match and although we lost 2-1 the lads played really well and can be proud of the display the Liverpool fans that I spoke to at the game were impressed. We were beaten by a very good Liverpool team but it was only 10 minutes from the end of the game that Liverpool looked comfortable when they took the lead for a second time with a header from a corner. The Dons goal came from some good pressure and forced a defender to sky it into his own net.

07/03/2001
The result of the Man Of The Match vote for the Stockport game is as follows: -

Marcus Gayle 8 votes 36%
Patrick Agyemang 6 votes 27%
Kelvin Davis 3 votes 14%
Gareth Ainsworth 2 votes 9%
Neal Ardley 1 vote 5%
Kenny Cunningham 1 vote 5%
Chris Willmott 1 vote 5%

A new vote is open for the Gillingham game please click below to vote.

06/03/2001
In horrible conditions tonight we had a 0-0 draw at Gillingham, Marcus Gayle hit the inside of the post early on and in the second half Darren Holloway also smacked one against the cross bar. Gillingham hit the post in the last minute but on the whole a draw was a fair result.

Some strange refereeing went on tonight with the dons reduced to 10 men for the last two minutes when Pat Agyemang went off and Wayne Gray was due to come on but the ref said Wayne couldn't come on it was believed that Wayne was wearing a ring that the ref wanted taped up.

It looks like Chris Willmott is not suspended for tonight's game and is in the squad for tonight's game at Gillingham.

The current Man Of The Match vote will close on my return from Gillingham tonight so please vote if you haven't done yet.

An update will be produced tonight once I get home but over the next two days 7th and 8th March Updates may be a bit thin on the ground as I will be up in Liverpool to watch the youth team if the quarter finals of the FA Cup. I will try and produce an update either in the news section or via the guestbook so please check there as well..

05/03/2001
Teamtalk has reported that Aston Villa are interested in Jason Euell. The end of the Month see the Transfer deadline so expect quite a few stories like this before that time.

Tonight's reserve game has been called off due to the pitch at Leicester being waterlogged.

Tomorrow's game at Gillingham will see the return of Jason Euell but the departure of Chris Willmott in the current in and outs of suspensions.

04/03/2001
With the trip to Gillingham on Tuesday night can people please vote for the Stockport Man Of The Match as soon as possible.

For the record our goals on Saturday were from Wu Tang Agyemang and an Own Goal following a cross from Marcus Gayle.

As reported last night Gareth Ainsworth went off injured when he crashed in to the advertising boards towards the end of the first half. It looked like a shoulder injury but Marc Jones at Weird & Wonderful World has reported that it is a broken wrist and will keep him out for 4 weeks.

The result of the poll
"Will Damien Francis injury affect our Play-offs chances?"
is as follows: -

Yes ��(35) 42%
No ��(25) 30%
No - Not making Play-offs (24) 29%

This vote has now closed and I have added a new poll.

Terry Burton was upbeat to the press after the game saying "The play-offs are still a possibility as there are still a lot of points to play for before the season ends. It's a shame we couldn't hold on to the lead but you have to give Stockport credit for fighting back and this is a difficult place to come to so we're happy with a draw."

03/03/2001
A 2-2 draw at Stockport today and a disappointing performance. Most people at the game seemed to think that we clearly missed Mark Williams and Jason Euell and we also lost Gareth Ainsworth after 40 minutes when he went off with a shoulder injury.

The Man Of The Match Poll for Stockport is now open please click below to vote.

The result of the Queens Park Rangers Man Of The Match is as follows: -

Gareth Ainsworth 46 votes 68%
Mark Williams 13 votes 19%
Patrick Agyemang 2 votes 3%
Marcus Gayle 2 votes 3%
Jonathan Hunt 2 votes 3%
Jason Euell 1 vote 1%
Kenny Cunningham 1 vote 1%
Neal Ardley 1 vote 1%

As far as I can remember this has been the most popular vote yet and for the fourth game on the trot Gareth Wins.

A new vote will be added tonight.

Can I just say that last night (2nd March) This site had it's 70,000 visitor thanks to everyone that comes to the site.

02/03/2001
It's going to be cold over night but the pitch at Stockport is covered so the game should be alright.

The line up will see some changes tomorrow as both Jason Euell and Mark Williams are suspended, it is likely that Wayne Gray will replace Jason and Darren Holloway will come in for Mark.

Charles Koppel is quoted as saying that the clubs have had talks with the Wimbledon MP Roger Casale with the hope of the Dons returning to Merton.

01/03/2001
Two more games that have been rearranged Grimsby Away is now on 13th March 2001 , yes that is just 12 days time!! And Huddersfield at Selhurst in the first week of May.

Both Trond and Mark Williams made appearances in Norway's 4-0 victory over Northern Ireland. Mark came on for Northern Ireland after 45 minutes when they were 3-0 down and Trond came on after 75 minutes.

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