IT IS DIFFICULT to imagine the people at AFC Wimbledon viewing their flooded pitch as a beacon of hope.
When the nearby River Wandle swamped the playing surface of the League Two club’s neat and tidy little ground in South West London, they were staring at a full-blown disaster.
A big cup match cancelled and 100,000 litres of dirty water settled on the turf, then pouring into offices and changing rooms. Positivity seemed a million miles off.
With precious little money to spare at the lower ends of the Football League, the clean up operation could have broken the bank in much the same way as the Wandle broke its banks during one of the ever increasing number of storms, torrents, or extreme weather events that now wreak havoc on our sporting calendar.
Yet just 24 hours after the ‘one in 50 year’ flooding in September that ruined one corner of the pristine surface and put paid to a glamorous Carabao Cup tie at home to Premier League Newcastle, the spirit of football took flame.
AFC Wimbledon is the current guise of the old Wimbledon. The mob from Plough Lane that surged up through the divisions from non-League and all the way to winning the 1988 FA Cup fuelled on talent but equally a tireless can-do attitude that shook football to its core.
The modern Wimbledon is a far cry from those days of cold showers and crunching tackles, but they are still savvy enough to draw on their forerunners’ energy.
Supporter Graham Stacey set up a fundraising page to help his team pay for the dredgers and diggers, the shovels and sandbags to dry out the ground and get it back on its feet.
The initial target was £10,000 but within a day or so the total was rising like the levels of the river and shot past £100K.
Opponents Newcastle chipped in £15,000. Fans from every club in the pyramid donated, to the extent the funding had to be stopped because Wimbledon didn’t know what to do with all the money.
Remedial work at the ground cracked on at pace and within three weeks AFC Wimbledon were back playing home games – beating Carlisle 4-0 on a stirring return in front of their fans.
Manager Johnnie Jackson paid tribute to those who gave and those who gave up their time to dry out, level then relay the surface to the standard required.
In less than a month, the pitch at Plough Lane resembled a snooker table where previously it would not have looked out of place on a championship golf course with so many sandy bunkers.
It’s astonishing what people can do when they pull together, and the pressure’s on.
And when something as cherished as our national sport comes under threat, it triggers a wave of shared emotion. The selfishness of football tribalism is easily parked in favour of unity.
There is no greater common goal than combating climate change. And our love of sport is clearly feeling the effects of a wetter and warmer atmosphere.
Just this weekend, Storm Darragh put paid to the Merseyside derby. Traditionally one of the biggest games of the entire season.
The kind of weather that was once a nuisance is now not so unusual. It used to be frozen pitches but now it’s floods, downpours, gale force winds affecting fixtures from the very top level to our parks.
If you can’t see what’s happening around us, then don’t go in goal or become a referee.
Yet the way Wimbledon and the football public dealt with an overnight crisis is enough to suggest that if we act in a similar vein against a greater menace, then surprising things can be achieved.
It might feel like you can’t do anything as an individual. Wimbledon’s groundsman felt the same when he walked through the door that Monday morning to find his club under a foot of water.
But if each one of us implements even a minor change in behaviour it can help when totalled up like the aggregate scores over a two-legged European game.
Ditching the car and travelling to matches via public transport makes a huge difference.
Consuming less while you’re there, too.
Admittedly, this is leisure time and why shouldn’t you kick back a bit? But nobody’s asking you to stop having fun.
And don’t limit it to football trips. Use the car less, even ten percent less, and there’s an instant positive impact to be made.
Widen that to every aspect of your lives, get milk delivered in recyclable glass bottles, choose a bit more unwrapped fruit and veg, and reduce the red meat count.
On their own these things will make a trifling difference, but the good thing about team sports like football is that you are never on your own.
Written by – Andrew Dillon
