MEMORIES OF PLOUGH LANE 1961

By Alan Young

Saturday 11^th March 1961 was the great day. My first ever visit to Plough Lane!

At the time Wimbledon was in the grip of Amateur Cup fever. They had never won the trophy and many people thought this would be their year. A few days before over 9000 people had turned up at Kingstonians old ground in Richmond Road to see the Dons beat Whitley Bay in a second replay by 6-1. Now we were to face Walthamstow Avenue in a Quarter Final.

I was taken by a family friend. A big crowd was expected and we arrived early – we parked, I remember in Gap Road. Admission cost 9d (4p ) for boys and the programme cost 4d ( 2d). We wanted to go in the South Stand and there was a charge for transfer from the ground.

 We had a long wait. Uncomfortable, sitting on those hard wooden benches. We were near the centre line. I looked out to the left where you could see the spire of St Mary's Church. Then watched the ground gradually fill up – the covered Durnsford Road end, the open Wandle end, the main stand opposite with its privet hedge in front, and the paddock below us. In the end there were, I think, over 10,000 in the ground. 

At last the teams came out. Wimbledon in their royal blue shirts with white trimmings, white shorts and socks ( the yellow came much later) led by Roy Law. Others in the side included Mike Kelly in goal, John Martin, Brian Martin and, of course, Eddie Reynolds.

Of the match itself I remember little except that a second half goal gave victory to the visitors and the Cup dream was over for another year. Maybe the three matches against Whitley Bay took their toll. 

A few weeks later I persuaded my father, who had taken me to see Chelsea play Preston in a First Division match the week after my first visit to Plough Lane, to take me to a floodlit match at Plough Lane, against Leytonstone. The Dons still had a chance of the Isthmian League title but they had quite a fixture backlog. This one ended 1-1 after we had taken the lead.

By now I felt up to taking myself to matches and I was allowed to go along to evening games in the Easter school holidays.  I saw the Dons beat Woking 4-0 ( this one kicked off at 6.30 because Woking refused to play under lights – there were tensions between Wimbledon and Woking at that time, for reasons I cannot recall), Clapton 1-0 two days later and, I think, Kingstonian.

But Wimbledon could not make up the gap. Bromley took the title and our conquerors Walthamstow won the Amateur Cup beating West Auckland 2-1 at Wembley. I watched the second half live on my grandparents television – we didn't have a set at that time. It was another two years before we beat Sutton in the Final to finally win the Cup

Before the season ended there was my first Cup Final, albeit only the Final of the South of the Thames Cup. I cannot remember how you qualified to play in that Cup or why it was held. Presumably you had to be located ‘south of the Thames’! But the Final was at Plough Lane against Bromley. Unfortunately it was played in a torrential downpour –thunder and lightning – with players sloshing about. Wimbledon won 5-2 and took the trophy. Incidentally, I see that that Cup success is listed on the Honours board that was in the AFC Wimbledon programme – and that we also won it in 1962 and 1963, at which point, I believe, it ceased to be contested.

So that was the end of the School holidays and the end of my first experience of Plough Lane. At the beginning of 1961-62 I was there for a friendly against Chelsea Reserves who had Tommy Docherty in their side – but that's another story !