WUPBlog

Our win yesterday leaves us clear at the top with three games to go, and while it would be a massive disappointment were we to slip up now, its worth recycling the cliché that any one of us would have taken the position we are in now if offered it at the start of the season.

We now have the luxury of knowing two wins in the next three games will win us the title, starting on Monday at Bromley. If we slip up there the last two games will be like playoff matches anyway, with no further room for error presuming that Hampton and Eastleigh win their games in hand. If you thought yesterday was nerve-wracking, imagine having to win at Hampton then in front of a full house at Kingsmeadow against St Albans.

On the subject of the Basingstoke game, it’s really disappointing to hear stories of stewards being abused just for doing their jobs. We are in the unfortunate position of attracting some brain-dead morons to our club, people who will never really get what our fantastic club is all about. Yes, we were all disappointed we couldn’t use the bars at halftime, but bearing in mind the layout of the ground means you have to leave the stadium to get to the bars, with such a large crowd the club were left with very little choice on this occasion. If we get promoted, its highly likely we will have to put up with no bar access repeatedly next season, sadly that’s one of the costs of success.

There were a couple of things that caught my eye in yesterdays programme. Firstly Erik pointed out there will be a price rise should we be promoted, and seemed very apologetic about having to do so. Yet as he points out, even a £2 price rise will still mean we have the lowest entrance fee in the division. I don’t think any of use will begrudge that rise as and when promotion comes. The idea to try to offer direct debit payment is a great idea, but should it not prove to be practical, I feel the club should offer half-year season tickets for the first half of the season if they can. This will really help out fans that are feeling the squeeze at the moment, but again it might place an extra burden on the hardworking volunteers who have to deal with the admin side of things over the summer months.

Secondly I had almost forgotten about our linkup with Bucheon FC 1995. My heart went out to them when I saw the picture of their stadium decorated with banners with our badge saying ‘We will be your friends forever’. I felt like Id just received a Christmas card from a long distant elderly relative, knowing full well I hadn’t sent them one in return. I’m all up for creating a banner now with both teams badges and a twee slogan like ‘Holding hands across continents’ or something. The message board mentioned http://s1.zetaboards.com/Wimbledon_to_Bucheon/index/ is extremely underused at the moment, and I’m sure we are all busy right now, but maybe in the summer some of us could take the trouble to find out their latest results and offer congratulations/commiserations accordingly?

Finally a massive thanks to the WUP guys, for another great effort putting together the fanzine for yesterday. As a mere contributor I have no idea how much time it takes them to print out the pages, put them in correct order and most importantly staple them, but Id imagine whatever time it takes is too long!