AFC Wimbledon managed to achieve promotion and consign Luton to another year of non-league anonymity yesterday. Good news for them, but bad for the uppity Lutonians who instead of lining up against Bradford City next year will be entertaining Braintree. They also will have to take on us non-league nobodies without a fat wedge of parachute cash from the Football League. Ah, bless.
We've no special regard for Wimbledon at PATGOD - during their trips to Rockingham Road they came across as a whining, cheating bunch of moaners (as do most of the most successful teams it seems - see Stevenage Crawley & Oxford). What is positive about their success however is that they are a fans run football club. So much for those who say that no club can survive without some sort of rich benefactor / shady foreigner / crook, or combination of all three, in charge)
With the promotion of Telford into the top flight this is even more power to the elbow of supporter run clubs.
"Who will pay the shortfall without a sugar-daddy?", cry the unbelievers.
Well, usually the "shortfall" comes about from Chairmen chasing unsustainable goals.
"Other clubs can do it because they are bigger than us!", gnash the unbelievers.
Telford were never a big club until they became a supporter-owned affair. Gates of a thousand generally led to the bunting being unfurled. As for AFC Wimbledon, surely we are in a better shape than a club that didn't even exist 10 years ago?
"Without a ground, what's the point?", squeal the unbelievers.
A community owned club could approach the council, the Pickering family, and numerous other organisations from an entirely different position to a privately owned club.
Given the choice, if we were to crash and burn, I would rather us go out as a supporter-run club playing honestly under no illusions as to our place in the pecking order, than go out on our knees, begging for money to keep untrustworthy Directors in power like our friends down the road. Wouldn't you?
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