By Walter Otton
The editor of the Wimbledon match day programme contacted the Chelsea Supporters Trust and asked if they would like to make a contribution to the programme ahead of our teams meeting in a friendly at Kingsmeadow on July 19th. The CST duly asked if I would consider writing a piece. I jumped at the opportunity to make my début writing for an official programme. Unsurprisingly, the editor thought it would probably be best to omit the section where I have a dig at Peter Winkleman and the MK Dons franchise, which is completely understandable, but is featured below. For those of you who couldn’t make the match or didn’t buy a programme, Chidge has offered to pop the article on this website. So it’s thanks to him, the @ChelseaSTrust and also to Ray Armfield / @KentWomble at AFC Wimbledon.
When the clubs announced that this pre-season friendly was taking place, a whole variety of thoughts and memories personal to me are conjured for several reasons regarding the fixture, the venue and our grounds.
Chelsea fans of a certain vintage will remember the annual summer fixture playing Kingstonian. It was local, it was cheap, and if you weren’t on your summer holidays you’d arrange to go with your mates who you might not have seen for a month or so since the back-end of the previous season.
I also remember watching a Wimbledon v Chelsea reserve fixture at Kingsmeadow on a Monday night shortly after Claudio Ranieri was appointed Chelsea manager in 2000. I’m fairly sure Wimbledon won 3-1 that night. My mate Smiffy shared his chips with Ranieri who posed for a photo before we bumped into John Terry in the car park.
The teams meeting in first-team fixtures holds a few memories. I recall a match at the Bridge in October 1996. Frank LeBouef clashed heads with Robbie Earle and played the rest of the match with a large egg shaped lump on his head, covered by a ridiculous bandage. The Wombles won 4-2 with goals coming from Earle, Ardley, Gayle and Ekoku. Chelsea’s scorers were Minto and Vialli. The victory gave Wimbledon a club record seven wins in a row. We met again six months later in the FA Cup semi final at Highbury. Wimbledon had the Clock End and most of the West Stand, Chelsea the North bank and everywhere else. I was in the East Stand and had a quite beautiful view of Zola’s incredible goal as Chelsea won 3-0 to book their place at Wembley.
Vinnie Jones played for both clubs. He left Wimbledon to sign for Leeds, Sheffield United, Chelsea then back to Wimbledon in the early stages of the 92-93 
season. At Stamford Bridge during the pre-match warm-ups, the Shed end used to chant, “Vinnie, Vinnie gis’ a song” – he would jog over, cup his hands over his mouth and yell, “One Man Went to Mow!” then proceed to conduct the supporters as we sang the song. After Vinnie left Chelsea to re-join Wimbledon, I went to Selhurst Park in December 1992 as a crowd of 14,687 saw a dreadful 0-0 draw. The highlight of the day was when the away fans chanted for Vinnie to once more “gis’ a song” and he jogged over, unzipped his tracksuit top to reveal a Chelsea top (which we all cheered) and, for the last time, he conducted us as we belted out the chant.
Chelsea fans know what it is like to nearly lose our ground. “Cash For Chelsea” buckets were on the forecourt in 1977 and “Save The Bridge” buckets in 1982. More recently in 2011, the CPO (Chelsea Pitch Owners) which consists of thousands of Chelsea supporters who have purchased a share, have had to stand, vote and fight against the Clubs hierarchy who tried to buy back the free-hold owned by CPO in order to force a move away from Stamford Bridge. It is a boiling pot of politics and emotion, of supporters versus the Board, which is always simmering behind the backdrop of our recent on-pitch successes.
I, along with hundreds of thousands of other supporters, watched with horror as Winkelman gave birth to his odious football franchise. Let me be frank – every like-minded follower of our game that I’ve met wishes AFC Wimbledon would smash the MK Dons 10-0 at every given opportunity, and dreams of the day that Winkleman’s club ultimately embrace liquidation.
So, don’t be fooled that Chelsea fans are classless, or a bunch of plastics. Of course we are grateful to Mr Abramovich for all he has done for our Club. But make no mistake, we would travel in our thousands whether we were playing Barnsley or Barcelona. We are more than happy that this summer our team aren’t touring Malaysia or Thailand! We can follow our team once again back at good old Kingsmeadow and genuinely wish AFC Wimbledon all the best this season on the pitch and also in their pursuit for a future stadium that they can finally, since Plough Lane, call home.
Follow Walter on twitter @WalterOtton and have a read of one of his fantastic books – you can buy them here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Walter%20Otton
