Friend Or Defoe - I can really only speak on my own behalf and perhaps a few Bromley fans but there was a very large part of AFCW fans who had this view that they didn't belong in Non League and wo-betide anyone who got in their way. This kind of attitude in the lower reaches of Non-League isn't really what it's all about.
Bromley had a few run ins with AFCW when in the same division mainly due to some of the interesting elements who seem to follow them. One example being when Ryan Hall (former CAFC trialist and now at Southend) accidentally scored from his own half after the ball had been put out for a AFCW player to receive treatment. The reaction of the AFCW players and management on the Bromley bench was so extreme that Bromley refused to let AFCW score a walk-in goal. Following this the Bromley and AFCW message boards went into meltdown for a few weeks and someone even went as far as changing Ryan Hall's Wikipedia page so that every other word was an expletive. (I'm not justifying Bromley's "unsporting behaviour" but think the reaction to the crime was very over the top)
Another example was when they got deducted points by the FA for Jermaine Darlington not having International clearance they someone got Tony Blair involved and got away with a completely unprecedented reduction in the point deduction.
I also think that deep down (maybe true of myself) that many Non-league fans are just jealous of AFCW's achievements as I doubt any team has got through non-league in such a short time.
Didnt it kick off at Hayes Lane when AFC played Coney Hall in a cup game?
Yep and that was all Bromley's fault too as the club allowed the AFCW fans to drink during the game! Not because the AFCW fans couldn't control their drinking...?
I went to watch AFCW play at Tamworth last season. The train was packed with AFCW fans at Euston station and when the train annoucer said 'the next station will be Milton Keynes Central' the whole carriage went boooooooooooooooooooo hisssssssssssssssssssssssssss! I then overheard a few of their fans saying they were gonna get off at MK but then they realised they were playing away at Carlisle that day. When MK Dons vs AFCW happens one day it will be hostile to say the least. But all their fans seemed like a nice bunch of people and there was no trouble at all at the game. They took nearly 700 fans as well which is pretty impressive for a Conference outfit. I even noticed there was a bloke wearing a Welling Utd scarf standing with the AFCW fans??? Maybe he thought that AFCW stood for AFC Welling and made the trip to Tamworth on his own. Kind of odd tho!
I went to watch AFCW play away at Tamworth last season. The train was packed with AFCW fans at Euston station and when the train announcer said 'the next station will be Milton Keynes Central' the whole carriage went booooooooooooo hisssssssssssssss! I then overheard a few of their fans saying that they were getting off at MK but then they realised that MK Dons were playing away at Carlisle that day. When AFCW vs MK Dons happens someday it will be hostile to say the least! Most of the AFCW fans seemed like a nice bunch of people and there was no trouble at all at the game. I remember seeing a bloke wearing a Welling Utd scarf standing with the AFCW fans??? Maybe he thought that AFCW stood for AFC Welling and made the trip to Tamworth on his own? Kinda odd tho!
If Milton Keynes wanted a club then they should have formed one and started from scratch just like any other club has had to do, including AFC Wimbledon.
Didnt it kick off at Hayes Lane when AFC played Coney Hall in a cup game?
Yep and that was all Bromley's fault too as the club allowed the AFCW fans to drink during the game! Not because the AFCW fans couldn't control their drinking...?
The Dons group also got turned over in the Slug and Lettuce the following year.
Was at Eastlands on Saturday, after a disappointing Charlton season football wise was hoping for a better day. A great day for the club been to many games before, a great club, great atmosphere. When they first started out in the combined counties they had an average gate of 3,000. A truly remarkable achievement. At the end of the day they are the real Wimbledon. 5 promotions in 8 seasons is a great acheivement espically with no owners, all run by the fans. Would love to see that passion that the wombles showed on saturday for Charlton. Congratulations to Terry Brown on taking AFC back to their rightful place in the league.
Just to add on to the points made by Bromley Boy and Palace Hater. Bromley lent their ground (Hayes Lane) to Coney Hall, who were playing AFC in a cup game.
Apparently there was a lot of trouble during the game and as a result AFC made some none too complimentary remarks in the press about the ground, the fact that their fans had been allowed to drink behind the goal, and conditions surrounding the sale of alcohol. This had never been a problem before at Bromley, or quite a few other non-league grounds. AFC also complained about Bromleys insufficient segregation and stewarding arrangments that were also to blame for the trouble.... no mention of their own fans inability to be able take control of their actions.
Despite this being a 'Coney Hall game' it was apparently all Bromleys fault (have you spotted the common theme yet?) and it led to a rather nasty slanging match and a subsequent restriction on the sale of alcohol during games (designated 'drinking zones').
Following league games between the clubs contained a certain amount of animosity, and AFC always had to bring their own stewards becuase no one else's could be trusted to do it properly. This was to disguise the fact that they have a nasty hooligan element that follow them and that the club has managed to ignore. For example during the last game between the clubs a number of my friends were attacked in the car park, one of my friends was with his pregnant wife and elderly father, but this didn't seem to put the AFC fans off! The rumour is that after the game AFC managed to bump into a large amount of chelsea fans at Bromley South on the way back and bit off a little more than they could chew...
The 'kerfuffle' (I love that word) following the Ryan Hall goal is another example... AFC had been quite happy to play act to an embarrasing level during the game (they needed the poin(s) for promotion if I remember rightly)... and the goal came from Bromley refusing to play along... AFC failed to mention that they scored the following week after failing to put the ball out with two opposition players legitimately injured (one had to be subbed). I think this might have been against Hampton and Richmond, and again involved lots of AFC 'misbehaviour'... pitch invasions, trouble etc etc... all again the oppositions fault for not controlling the AFC fans, and having a ground with insufficient stewards segregations etc etc.....
As mentioned, the club has a 'holier than tho' attitude and seems to think it has a divine right to be a league club, and is quite happy to bully its way to get where its wants... knowingly playing an inelligable player, then starting an on-line peteition against the subsequent penalty, stealing someone elses ground, and then claiming you were just helping out with the 'bills'...
Whilst its impossible not to admire what they achieved, the club, its fans and their attitude will not be missed by any non-league fans
Was by complete chance, a group of local 'characters'/football types had gone there after the match and bumped into 15 or so Dons chaps who at the time were quite prominent on the England scene.
One thing lead to another and they promptly boarded the fast train back to Victoria with their tails between their legs. The Coney Hall incident has been described by WoW which started it all off. Has to be said though the fixtures between the 2 sides were fantastic, always big crowds and good contests. The play off win at Hayes Lane was one of the best games of football I've ever seen.
Comments
Can you just confirm that you think they should have gone bust and closed down completely.
Bromleyboy, why do non-league fans despise AFC so much?
Bromley had a few run ins with AFCW when in the same division mainly due to some of the interesting elements who seem to follow them. One example being when Ryan Hall (former CAFC trialist and now at Southend) accidentally scored from his own half after the ball had been put out for a AFCW player to receive treatment. The reaction of the AFCW players and management on the Bromley bench was so extreme that Bromley refused to let AFCW score a walk-in goal. Following this the Bromley and AFCW message boards went into meltdown for a few weeks and someone even went as far as changing Ryan Hall's Wikipedia page so that every other word was an expletive. (I'm not justifying Bromley's "unsporting behaviour" but think the reaction to the crime was very over the top)
Another example was when they got deducted points by the FA for Jermaine Darlington not having International clearance they someone got Tony Blair involved and got away with a completely unprecedented reduction in the point deduction.
I also think that deep down (maybe true of myself) that many Non-league fans are just jealous of AFCW's achievements as I doubt any team has got through non-league in such a short time.
AFC are scum. Stole Kingstonian's ground. Think MK Dons are more honourable than them to be honest.
Was at Eastlands on Saturday, after a disappointing Charlton season football wise was hoping for a better day. A great day for the club been to many games before, a great club, great atmosphere. When they first started out in the combined counties they had an average gate of 3,000. A truly remarkable achievement. At the end of the day they are the real Wimbledon. 5 promotions in 8 seasons is a great acheivement espically with no owners, all run by the fans. Would love to see that passion that the wombles showed on saturday for Charlton. Congratulations to Terry Brown on taking AFC back to their rightful place in the league.
Just to add on to the points made by Bromley Boy and Palace Hater. Bromley lent their ground (Hayes Lane) to Coney Hall, who were playing AFC in a cup game.
Apparently there was a lot of trouble during the game and as a result AFC made some none too complimentary remarks in the press about the ground, the fact that their fans had been allowed to drink behind the goal, and conditions surrounding the sale of alcohol. This had never been a problem before at Bromley, or quite a few other non-league grounds. AFC also complained about Bromleys insufficient segregation and stewarding arrangments that were also to blame for the trouble.... no mention of their own fans inability to be able take control of their actions.
Despite this being a 'Coney Hall game' it was apparently all Bromleys fault (have you spotted the common theme yet?) and it led to a rather nasty slanging match and a subsequent restriction on the sale of alcohol during games (designated 'drinking zones').
Following league games between the clubs contained a certain amount of animosity, and AFC always had to bring their own stewards becuase no one else's could be trusted to do it properly. This was to disguise the fact that they have a nasty hooligan element that follow them and that the club has managed to ignore. For example during the last game between the clubs a number of my friends were attacked in the car park, one of my friends was with his pregnant wife and elderly father, but this didn't seem to put the AFC fans off! The rumour is that after the game AFC managed to bump into a large amount of chelsea fans at Bromley South on the way back and bit off a little more than they could chew...
The 'kerfuffle' (I love that word) following the Ryan Hall goal is another example... AFC had been quite happy to play act to an embarrasing level during the game (they needed the poin(s) for promotion if I remember rightly)... and the goal came from Bromley refusing to play along... AFC failed to mention that they scored the following week after failing to put the ball out with two opposition players legitimately injured (one had to be subbed). I think this might have been against Hampton and Richmond, and again involved lots of AFC 'misbehaviour'... pitch invasions, trouble etc etc... all again the oppositions fault for not controlling the AFC fans, and having a ground with insufficient stewards segregations etc etc.....
As mentioned, the club has a 'holier than tho' attitude and seems to think it has a divine right to be a league club, and is quite happy to bully its way to get where its wants... knowingly playing an inelligable player, then starting an on-line peteition against the subsequent penalty, stealing someone elses ground, and then claiming you were just helping out with the 'bills'...
Whilst its impossible not to admire what they achieved, the club, its fans and their attitude will not be missed by any non-league fans
One thing lead to another and they promptly boarded the fast train back to Victoria with their tails between their legs. The Coney Hall incident has been described by WoW which started it all off. Has to be said though the fixtures between the 2 sides were fantastic, always big crowds and good contests. The play off win at Hayes Lane was one of the best games of football I've ever seen.