What a last week or so it has been for AFC Wimbledon fans.
Seven days ago they should have been hosting Newcastle United in the Carabao Cup.
Thanks to flooding, their stadium closed for matches until further notice and this cup game moved to St James’ Park.
Interesting to read these comments from AFC Wimbledon fans ahead of tonight’s game.
AFC Wimbledon fans commenting ahead of tonight’s Newcastle United match at St James’ Park – Commenting via Twitter and their Old Centrals’ Repository message board:
‘Whatever the outcome, the Newcastle club, fans trust and supporters (by their turn out) have treated us with respect and understanding in our hour of need … it should be returned.’
‘Can’t wait. It’s a ground I’ve long wanted to visit and to watch the Super Dons there well……’
‘1400 Wombles heading to Newcastle. Unreal on a weeks notice.’
‘On Tuesday and 285 miles away! Just unbelievable.’
‘How many toons in the away end?’
‘To all the Wombles travelling north. Enjoy it, take it in, sit back take a minute and remember how far we’ve come.
We are Wimbledon.’
‘I hope everyone has a safe and amazing trip to whoever is going to Newcastle today. Sing loud and proud. Who knows, we may cause an upset.’
‘ At one week’s notice and given all the travel issues involved this is an insane turnout! Well done everyone.’
‘Yesterday I was getting up at 5 to go and work in a chicken factory in Bungay, today I’m getting up at 5 to go to St James’ Park, it truly is a weird and wonderful world if you come from Wimbledon.’
‘Be nice to get the first goal and make it a bit tasty.’
‘Certainly the fact that they’ve sold out the home tickets suggest the locals will be expecting a comfortable win.’
‘To be fair we generally dont get humiliated when we play prem teams but then it is bound to happen at some point. Reckon it will be 5-0 tonight.’
‘Fear a bit of a hammering at SJP.
It’s the Saudis slim chance of silverware this season.’
‘Hope it stays competitive until late for the Womble Horde.’
‘For anyone going up to Newcastle and looking for pubs then if you look and sound like a student I’d stick away from the Bigg Market area as they hate those posh tw.ts up there.’
‘Drink in Durham then where the students outnumber the locals!’
‘at least you can still get a pint for 50p there look on the bright side.’
‘Walking down the Haydon’s Road to see the Wimbledon Aces. Oh, the Lads, you should have seen us coming. Everywhere was yellow and blue and everyone was running. All the lads and lasses, smiles upon their faces. Walking down the Haydon’s Road, to see the Womble Aces!’
‘Forecast for Newcastle looks a tad soggy.’
‘Afternoon all. Rain supposed to be stopping on Tyneside this evening…’
‘In car on way to game. Weather terrible. In laws at home with the kids – they are asking if the game is on tv tonight?’
‘On Sky sports plus on red button.’
‘Does that mean the loss of income etc with the Toon now being played away is going to be treated as a knock for knock, or won’t it even be considered?’
‘I can just see an insurer trying to weasel out of paying by arguing that any fundraising should first go to reduce our insured loss, rather than covering our costs and losses which aren’t insured, so any fundraising would then effectively be for the benefit of the insurers rather than the club.’
‘Depends on what insurance we have and what we make a claim against. They may argue since the game got moved and we got 45% of gate profits we didn’t lose income – which is probably true. On that front we probably made more anyway.. But the fixing if anything should be the insurance taking over.’
‘It’s not a good thing that the Premier League is turning into a private owners’ club. Create the ESL and let us have our game back.’
‘Odds have drifted (we’re now 12/1 to win). Worth a nibble at 11/10 on us to score 1+ goal.’
‘
‘The SS+ games haven’t lagged for me but maybe if loads of Geordies are tuning in it will be different this time.’
‘The usual sky+ MO is that they highlight the games that are on and you can only log on 10 mins before kick off. No analysis before or after the match, half-time highlights and a rolling stats board. Same at the end of the game.’
‘Enjoy the day those going to the game – just hope none of you suffer from vertigo.’
‘We could do with throwing the game against Newcastle to keep our league title hopes intact.’
‘After the draw with Man City, Newcastle unbeaten in eleven games at St James park, can the mighty Wombles do it……’
‘Maybe leave a little extra time getting in… long walk up to level 7… should be a cracking night!’
‘A home match with over 50,000. Knock off a few bob to pay for staff, utilities etc. We’ll be so rich.’
‘Done Newcastle a good few times in the golden era, happy to watch it down the pub.’
‘Been to all 24 Newcastle v Wimbledon games in the days when I was working but doubt I’ll make the 25th due to cost of going at short notice.’
‘Last time I went to Newcastle was when we played Gateshead round that running track’