The rise of AFC Wimbledon

Danny Kedwell and Terry Brown gave me their thoughts on the club's epic success.

It all has a sense of déjà vu to it. A South London club on a rise from the Southern

League into the football league with a unique brand of football that ensures the clubs

fortunes are always moving forward, on the pitch and off it.

Down at AFC Wimbledon they’re following a familiar SE19 blueprint that their namesake

Wimbledon FC drew up in the eighties under Dave ‘Harry’ Bassett and his Crazy Gang.

Heroes like Vinnie Jones and Dennis Wise fired the ‘old’ Wimbledon from the fourth

division all the way up to the first division in five seasons.

Fast forward 25 years and Terry Brown is the man in control of a new Crazy Gang. Formed

by the supporters from the ashes of Wimbledon, who were controversially relocated and

rebranded to become the Milton Keynes Dons, the AFC is said to be an acronym for ‘A fans’

club’.

Watched by an average crowd of 3,000 even on the bottom rung of the football pyramid, the

side have enjoyed a steady climb from the Combined Counties League and have celebrated

four promotions in eight years. Now AFC Wimbledon are three games away from a return to

the Football League.

The heroes of this story probably won’t go on to star in Hollywood movies or play in World

Cups, but under the leadership of captain Danny Kedwell and playing Brown’s attractive

passing football, this side can play their part one of the greatest underdog stories in football.

If they can progress in the Conference playoffs in the coming fortnight then they will write

the history books once again for this corner of London.

“It’s a peculiar club,” says manager Brown, “you don’t hear supporters massively dwelling

on the Selhurst Park days, you don’t even hear them dwelling on Harry Bassett’s phenomenal

success - nobody will ever do that again. But they’ll go back to Allen Batsford and what he

achieved taking us out of the Southern League, and into the Football League.

“If we can have a similar scenario,” he says, before pointing out they can never emulate

Batsford and what he did, “then we’ll have taken part in history.”

Kedwell leads the team from the front, scoring 15 goals in his debut season to get Wimbledon

out of the Conference South then a further 26 last term to ensure they finished in top half

of the Conference. This season’s tally of 23 has the fans dreaming of that all important

promotion.

“It’s very important, obviously for the fans.” he explains: “Because of what’s happened in

the past it’s very important to them and all the players know that - and what a thing to do -

to get this team here and get them back into the Football League. I don’t think we’d ever be

forgotten.”

It’s clear that promotion means as much to the players as it does for the fans, and with

Wimbledon amassing a colossal 90 points this season to secure second place, you get the

sense that Kedwell has his boys have earned the right to dream about taking this club over the

finish line.

“It’s massive for me. Obviously I’m captain of the club and I just can’t get it out of my mind.

I just sit there thinking, ‘I could be captain of the club getting them back to the Football

League and picking up that cup up for all of those fans, the true fans, the Wimbledon fans’ -

it would be amazing and never forgotten. It would be the highlight of my career.”

Kedwell’s goalscoring exploits haven’t gone unnoticed and larger clubs have expressed

interest in him before with the promise of higher level football and much better wages,

but Wimbledon’s number nine isn’t going anywhere until the job is done and his dream is

realised.

“It’s just the whole thing,” he tells me, when I ask what keeps him in the blue and yellow

shirt, “the players, the staff, the manager and the fans. It’s just the whole environment. The

whole club just makes you so welcome. I’m enjoying my football here and I don’t see why

I should move on and go somewhere where I might not. This is a place I love playing at and

turning up everyday training with the club I love.”

And is there still a hint of the former Wimbledon here, as the new club progresses like the

former?

“I think there is,” says Kedwell, “just the name and coming to play here - the fans are just

amazing. I think there is still a bit of a Crazy Gang mentality at this new Wimbledon.”

The setup at AFC is clearly an important factor, and he is quick to suggest that “unless it was

the Premier League” his feet are firmly rooted in Merton before laughing and conceding by

his own admission that he doubts he’ll ever get that far. His ambition is simple: “I’m here to

get AFC Wimbledon back into the Football League.”

If the side can dispatch of Fleetwood Town over two legs in the playoff semi-final next week

then the prospect of leading the team out at Manchester City’s Eastlands Stadium for the final

will become a reality for their captain, for whom nothing else but promotion matters.

“It would be emotional, obviously leading out the players and seeing the boy’s faces. It’s

another experience for us. It’s a bit nerve-racking going into these semi-finals thinking ‘I just

can’t imagine if it doesn’t happen.’ I don’t know what I’ll do if we don’t get through - I’ll

probably lose it!”

Former Aldershot manager Brown is equally keen to finally break a hoodoo that has seen

him agonisingly close to realising his own ambitions after missing out on promotion to the

Football League with his two former clubs.

“It’s been my own personal ambition to be a Football League manager.” He explains: “That’s

been my ambition since I started managing some 10-15 years ago at Hayes. I came

desperately close with them and Aldershot, so this is another opportunity to take that final

hurdle.”

Personal ambitions aside, Brown also throws light on the importance of the task in hand

with regards to Wimbledon’s supporters: “You have to see the bigger picture with this club.

It is real history. We celebrated the Blue Square South like we’d won the European cup

and everything about going back to the village to drink with the locals and going back to

Wimbledon to celebrate.

“Now if we win at Manchester, that’s if we get there for a start, we won’t actually be able to

drive back and celebrate in Wimbledon, but I’m sure during the next week we would party in

Wimbledon -the whole ethos about the club is that it wants to come back to Wimbledon and I

hope that the club do come back there someday.”

For now at least, Wimbledon play their home matches at the Kingsmeadow Stadium, or

The Fans’ Stadium in Kingston, and those fans that have stuck by the club are now being

rewarded with some fantastic football implemented by Brown who hopes it will bring the

club glory in the divisions above.

“We are a footballing side. I’m in a position now where I’ve earned the right to play a brand

of football that I enjoy. It’s very much based on the model of the Barcelona and Arsenal

game, with a bit more discipline. That’s the way I want to play my football.

“It can be successful.” He says, before condoning any naysayers: “Its rubbish to assume that

there’s only one way to play in League One and League Two, its absolute rubbish. I might

have egg on my face by saying that, but if we get there, we’ll play our football.”

Praised for this football finesse throughout the season, Brown’s side draw yet more

comparisons to Bassett’s team of the eighties, often in the press for their style of football,

although for very different reasons. The days of crude ‘Route One’ football - made famous

by the original Dons and lambasted in the press as unsophisticated have been banished to the

archives. The new philosophy here has the manager waxing lyrical about his squad’s ability

to outplay their opposition.

“We do religiously practise it and it becomes like second nature,” he says of the

system. “From the Cambridge game in the latter part of this season, it was like turning a

switch on and going ‘blimey, they’re doing that automatically, they’re not even looking up,’

- they were getting it and playing it, getting it forward, getting it back and that comes with

months and months of practise and it’s lovely when it comes into fruition and I think that

next year we’ll be a much better side than we are this year.”

With such belief from the fans, players and indeed the manager you might be wondering why

on 90 points, AFC Wimbledon didn’t win the Blue Square Bet Premier hands down. Instead,

that was done by the well-financed ‘Manchester City of the Conference’ Crawley Town,

who finished the season on 105 points via a rather well documented trip to the red side of

Manchester in the FA Cup.

The majority of Crawley’s goals were scored by frontman Matt Tubbs who cost the club

£250,000 - a staggering amount of money at this level, and a fee that could buy you the

whole Wimbledon squad (and a bit). So is there any animosity towards the champions at the

Kingsmeadow?

“Not really,” says Brown, “If I was given the finances that Crawley were given, would I have

gone and bought a load of youngsters in last year? Well, I wouldn’t have been able to afford

to, because with the money comes the pressure and Steve Evans (the Crawley manager)

handled that pressure all along - he said it was project promotion and he achieved that and did

it with some very good buys.

“The fact they got beaten 1-0 by Manchester United at Old Trafford tells you a heck of a lot

about that outfit and I think that they will romp through League Two.”

The league table is a testament to what Brown has achieved here on the limited budget that

the Dons have, something he says is “very satisfying” as he closes the chapter on the race

to the title with Crawley: “The truth is, we’re a good ten points plus behind Crawley, they

thoroughly deserved to win the league. They were the best team in at and as long as we’re the

best team in the playoffs, I’ll be the happiest man in the world.”

The playoffs are the main focus for AFC Wimbledon now, and that has been the case for a

number of weeks as the team gear up for one last push towards the Football League. One

thing they will be hoping to avoid is the playoff jinx that failed to get Wimbledon out of

the Conference South two years running under former manager Dave Anderson - and that

ironically led to Brown getting the job.

“I took over from Dave Anderson.” He recalls: “He was a fabulous bloke and he had a good

set of players – he was desperately unlucky two years on the trot. He went into his playoff

finals decimated with injury. Well, I’m going into these playoff finals with 22 fit players.”

Due to a fixture pileup in the season, AFC Wimbledon endured what Brown described as

a “torturous January and February”, where his side fulfilled eleven fixtures in January alone.

It caught up with them and the top spot that they had occupied was seized by Crawley,

something that Kedwell also recognises as the point where the season momentarily reached

breaking point.

“It absolutely took it out of us.” He says, “If the games hadn’t have been like that I think we

could have definitely pushed Crawley for the title.” In a twist of fate though, that same fixture

pileup has arrived more recently for the other playoff sides, much to the elation of everyone

at the club.

“The mood here couldn’t be more buoyant to be honest,” says Brown. “We come into the

final phase of the season in our best form. I’m sincerely hoping that same sort of fixture

pileup that the other teams in the playoffs are suffering will catch up with them because we

look fresh and some of them look a bit leggy. I know how that feels - it doesn’t matter how

much buoying you do and how much geeing up you do, if the legs are tired, they’re tired. We

go into it very fresh and playing some of our best football.”

Kedwell echoes the manager’s sentiments with regards the general vibe at the club it, and is

to be expected for any team facing the prospect of potential promotion.

“It’s absolutely buzzing at the minute round the camp.” Says the captain: “We’ve got a fit

squad and a full squad raring to go. We have the last game of the season tomorrow against

Grimsby, but really that’s just a little warm up for us. We’re all concentrating on the play-offs

next Friday.”

Although Luton and Wrexham will be considered hot favourites for promotion via the

playoffs, Brown is focusing on the task in hand which is the continued forward momentum

gained by seasons like this, and experience like the playoffs.

“I think it’s important that from our point of view the spectators see progression every year.

They’ve seen progression in the last nine years, and we’ve progressed again this year. If we

don’t get in to League Two this year, and get up next year then that would be fine. The club

has to keep driving forward, it can’t stand still. It has to keep going forward like it has done

over the last nine years.”

If the club is successful in the playoffs, it will be a remarkable achievement for a team

founded on a dream. Brown has his own dreams and he is currently visualising the future and

growth of Wimbledon regardless of the outcome of this campaign.

“I’m looking now at who we’re keeping and I’m looking to keep the vast majority of the

squad intact. That is extremely satisfying as a manager because the one thing you need to

build a side is continuity. It’s no good saying we’ve got a very good young side if we don’t

keep those boys on board and next season we’ll be able to keep the vast nucleus of our

squad together. If you’re trying to play the type of football that we’re playing then it’s really

important that you keep the bodies on board. I don’t have to go through the pattern and the

shape every game - everybody already knows what it is.”

The future looks exceptionally bright for Wimbledon regardless of promotion or not, but just

in case they did go up, would Brown look to ring the changes in the hope to keep pushing on?

“It would open up some better finances for us and we’d have more money to play with but I

would want to start with the nucleus of this squad, they’re the boys – if they’re good enough

to get us there this year, then they’ll be good enough to start next year.”

It’s a refreshing approach to see a manager have faith in his team’s ability to make the step up

and it smacks a little of Ian Holloway and his Football League dream team who are currently

doing battle with the big guns in the business end of the pyramid. I ask Brown how he thinks

his side might do if they get into League Two.

“I think we’d be okay.” he says. ”We’re a fantastic footballing side but that wouldn’t be

enough in League Two. We’d have to be a bit more physical as well. I don’t think we’re a

million miles off any of the clubs that have gone in there, and all acquitted themselves very

well with some aging, ailing rubbish up there that needs to come out and start again.”

It’s clear that young teams and attractive football are the order of the day for Brown, and

one genuinely hopes he will get a chance to show that “aging, ailing rubbish” how it’s done.

I’m told that anyone hoping to play for his side will need “a work ethic and they need to

train hard. It’s about working your balls off on the pitch. We don’t carry any passengers on a

Saturday.”

You can’t say fairer than that, and AFC Wimbledon certainly have worked their balls off to

get to the cusp of returning to the level that their ancestors played at, and the only passengers

they carry here are the fans who pack the ground out week-in week-out to watch the legacy of

their stolen club continue in astonishing fashion.

Kedwell can’t hide the excitement from his voice: “Everyone you talk to, they say ‘Just

imagine Wimbledon getting back in that Football League.’ Everybody wants it and we’re

here now and we have to make sure we do it.”

They might not win the FA Cup like the Crazy Gang of 1988, and it might be a while before

they’re mixing it with the Premier League teams like their predecessors, but one thing is

for certain - Wimbledon could be the talk of South London once again and based on the

evidence, would you bet against history repeating itself once again?

Gus Poyet May 2011

Gus Poyet was a top bloke.

If you had a look at the League One table for the majority of April, you may have noticed

the ‘P’ next to runaway leaders Brighton’s name. Well, it doesn’t stand for pavilion or even pier

because thanks to a well known Uruguayan manager and his positive footballing philosophy -

that ‘P’ ensures that the seaside town is synonymous with ‘promotion’ this season.

Last season, Gus Poyet inherited a squad that he managed to steer to safety in League One and at the

start of this term his side were 20/1 outsiders in a division peppered with big names like Southampton,

Sheffield Wednesday and Huddersfield - all financially superior to the Seagulls. So how did the

renaissance at the Withdean begin?

The former Chelsea and Spurs midfielder greets me with an enthusiastic “Hello, young sir!” and I

congratulate him on winning the title. We are sat in a canteen at Brighton’s training ground and the

South Downs are a sea of green in the early summer sun. I waste no time finding out just what the

fundamental factors of this emphatic success were.

“When we set things up at the beginning of the season, one was the club itself, and then the players,”

he starts, “Then how strong you need that group to be and convince them that it's possible. Second -

without any doubt - the style of play. We had a system of playing football and we had to make sure

the players understood that and the sooner we could convince them (that was the right way) we could

find the consistency which is needed to win the league.”

That consistency saw Brighton and Hove Albion romp the title in emphatic style four games from

the end of the season with a 4-3 win over Dagenham and Redbridge at the Withdean to maintain an

unbeaten home record all season. Poyet was given full control of the signings needed to implement

the playing style that he told the club would bring them success.

“I'm pleased that the chairman agreed with the system and gave me the chance to put it in to practise

because you can believe in things but after if you don't have the right players or the right place to

play, it's difficult,” he tells me, before explaining the main motivation behind the system... it almost

sounds simple – football.

“I'm a believer that this game, if you think about the name - it's called football,” he tells me: “That

means that if the game is called football then you need to have the ball with you as much as you can.

If you don't have it, if you kick it, if you play the 50-50 all the time or you're just running about then

maybe we should call it athletics or whatever you want to call it! The idea is to make sure you use the

name of the game to your advantage and we try to do that.”

Football is the name of the game in Brighton that’s for sure, and an extra incentive for promotion this

season was the notion that the Seagulls could potentially be playing Championship football in their

inaugural season at the city’s brand new American Express Community Stadium, and Poyet would

need to take the reins of a master plan to deliver the dream promotion.

“I think the idea was to get up, somehow. That's what the club wanted, that's what the chairman asked

me. When he told me I had a good budget, I said that it was up to me to make sure that we were one

of the three going up. I needed to improve three or four places to get promoted automatically or win

the play-offs but that was the idea all the time and we did it, so I cannot be more proud than that.”

Poyet’s Brighton went top of the league on the 25th September when Francisco Sandaza scored a 95th

minute winner against Oldham and at the top they have remained where recently they ensured it was

mathematically impossible for any of the chasing pack to catch them and were promoted four weeks

early. The risk factor has played a major part in their success this season, and not one of the players is

to blame if he makes an error on the pitch as Poyet explains.

“They know if they make a mistake then it's my responsibility. Sometimes the best thing for a player

is to know that the manager will take that responsibility for everything that happens on the pitch,

wherever he goes and that is something they understand because we take risks. There is no team in

this league that takes more risks than us,” he continues, “We need to because we want the ball and if

we don't want the ball then you don't take risk, you put the ball as long as possible and really far from

your goal and that is not a risk.”

He pauses momentarily before adding: “It's a way of playing football, it's not bad or good - it's just

another way of playing football. We have to take risks but we manage to play the ball into areas

that nobody else does and I know that sometimes that can bring some massive mistakes. When that

happens people will always assume it's the player but it's not. It's me, and the players know it's me.”

In one season, Poyet has schooled a division on the art of football, creating superiority not only on the

pitch but in the league table as well. The former Uruguay international and a European Cup winner

has brought his experience of football outside of England to the fore whilst bring a new level of

understanding to his liege on the south coast.

“I think the dream of every single player, and every single manager is to get close to Barcelona and

the top teams in England that pass the ball well – Arsenal, Manchester United and Chelsea. You

need to adapt to the level that you're at and utilise the players you've got. Not just to dream and be a

dreamer. The idea is to play like the teams that like to pass the ball and keep it, create superiority and

use that to understand the game. People only see where my full-backs are or how we are playing but

they don't see the understanding of the game that we're trying to achieve.”

Admittedly those who don’t see into the psyche of the squad could be forgiven as we have been

brought up to appreciate a very different style of football - the robust ‘England way’ that often leaves

us crying into our pints with a Union Jack around our shoulders every two summers. I ask Poyet

whether he has any idea why other teams in England aren’t utilising his title winning formula.

“I think it's something that is coming from the academies,” he says, “If you went to see any game

in the Sunday League or any game in the under ten, under 15 or even nine-year-olds and you saw a

defender kick the ball long and far from the goal, he's going to be told “well done” from the manager

or the parents next to the pitch.”

“So there is a kid who is nine, he kicks the ball and gets a well done. And when he is ten, he kicks the

ball long and gets a well done. And then when he is 12 and when he is 14 and when he is 16. So he's

going to come to my team and I'm going to say “No. Don't kick it. Keep it. Get it down.” That kid will

probably look at me and say ‘What is wrong? You've changed football, because I've been kicking it

long for ten years and every single person was telling me well done.’

“It's a way of understanding I think,” he concludes, before quickly refusing to condone that style

of football as good or bad: “Again, there is no right or wrong. Not everyone has to play my way!”

But I now have Poyet in his element, discussing the game he loves and the brand of football that has

brought him the success he deserves in his first full term as a manager. He continues to explain the

ideas behind his keep-ball philosophy as if it were a new world order.

“The same happens with the headers. In England when the ball is coming to a centre-half in our

division, the defender normally heads the ball as high as possible and as far away as possible. If you

are marking someone and it's a difficult header then that's okay, but if you're free, you can pass the

ball with the head... It's allowed! If you look at John Terry he even jumps on top of a player and

passes it to Ashley Cole with his head because they want to keep the ball. If you don't want to keep it,

for some reason, then you kick it.”

This season, Brighton fans were given a sign of things to come as bright new hopefuls Lewis Dunk

and Jamie Smith broke into the first team, well versed in the new style of play implemented here that

is now standard practise in the reserves, under 18’s. I’m given a further insight into the blossoming

future of youth here when I ask him about nurturing the youth at the club.

“That the best way. That's the best thing for the future. To make sure that we set it up this year for

the younger group, because they'll be the second group that are playing exactly the same way that we

play. We're convincing those players that are in-between the under 18's and the first team that this

is the way you are going to be playing if you make the first team. Now next year we need to go two

groups down, the new under 18's and the under 16's.”

There is a moments silence and then Poyet bursts into life, waxing lyrical about his football once

again. I suddenly feel like I am on the receiving end of a pre-training team talk from him, as he

becomes animated and starts to explain exactly how the players are drilled in the new system.

“It's not just about passing the ball, that's the main thing that it's very important you get. It's not

like ‘OK. From now on we're going to pass the ball, and we are not going to kick it anymore.’ It's

about when we want to kick it and when we want to pass it. Why we're going to pass it, in which

conditions, on which pitch - there are plenty of factors involved.”

I am transfixed by his arms and hands taking the role’s of full-backs, wingers, and centre backs as he

continues to go into depth about the Brighton way: “It's not just ‘you're here, you're here and you're

here.’ It's not chess. It's football, and in football you need to understand things. Who is playing next

to you? Who are you playing against? If you are a quick player and you're attacking me, who is slow,

go on, take me on, but if you're against Ashley Cole then it's not going to be as easy to go past him, so

you need to understand the game, when you need help and when you don't. One day, we'll try to go to

that level, it'll take time but we'll get there.”

Brighton’s test at the next level came this season at the Britannia stadium when they faced Stoke City

in the FA Cup fifth round. Having already dispatched of Portsmouth and Watford, the Seagulls would

have to face their footballing opposites in the form of Tony Pulis’ robust, physical side. It was the

ultimate test of the philosophy but Brighton slumped to a 3-0 defeat, in a clash of footballing style. It

would allow Poyet to focus his efforts on the League One title, but not without learning another lesson

in the process.

“We were not strong physically strong enough,” he recalls, “and that's another part of the game we

need to get better at. We thought that we prepared the game well, we trained the throw-ins, and we

trained the corners - everything you need to train before a game at Stoke but at the end of the day it's

on the pitch where you have to deal with that big, big throw in. We didn't have anyone to throw it in

training; we were throwing it one handed! But we learned we were not strong enough to deal with that

quality.”

At this stage, it’s hard not to believe that he is the man who can bring the glory days back to Brighton

as the new breed of young upstarts mix with the more experienced heads in an attempt to push the

club onwards to the Premier League. Poyet’s first signing last summer was Gordon Greer from

Swindon Town who he instantly gave captaincy to, before building the promotion winning side

around him.

“That's the way I like to make my team, to make sure there is a good mix of experience and youth, a

good mix of technical players and players that will work hard. You need a defender who likes to play

the ball like Gordon, and another centre-half who is going to defend more than pass it. So you need to

mix the game up. I had been watching Gordon for a while and he was my first signing and he's been a

key part of this.”

Greer certainly was a huge part in the team forming a backbone in the team along with experienced

goalkeeper Casper Ankergren who Poyet knew well from his Leeds days and Radostin Kishishev

running the centre of the park for his team alongside the young, hungry Liam Bridcutt. A fruitful

relationship at the business end of the pitch between Ashley Barnes and Glenn Murray gave Brighton

over half of their goals this season, but is the gaffer going to stick to his guns next season and ensure

they pass their way to success?

“Yes, no doubt.” Is the succinct answer from Poyet, who clearly has faith in the system. We talk about

the success of Norwich, on the cusp of back-to-back promotions and he ponders his own aspirations

for next season: “We'll try to keep going. I think it's interesting how Norwich have done because

they've shown you can keep the momentum going up to the next level, so I'm looking forward to

doing something similar to that.”

Key to their fortunes will be winning the first few games but Poyet is not fussy who the curtain raiser

is against: “To be honest I just want to win the first game so it doesn't matter who it’s against really.

The main thing will be the week before, when we play the opening of the Amex. The last friendly

before the season starts.”

Ah yes! The Amex Stadium, the new 22,500 capacity ground that will be blessed with Championship

football in its first season. Chairman and professional poker player Tony ‘The Lizard’ Bloom invested

a cool £90m into the project which has coincided perfectly with Brightons’ rise to prominence, but

how does Poyet plan to turn the Amex into a fortress like Withdean was this season?

“Training as much as we can in there.” Is the answer, “that is something I've already asked for, and

I know it's going to be difficult because they'll want to keep the pitch beautiful for the first game but

we need to get in and train there.” If the pitch does stay in top condition then Brighton fans can look

forward to seeing some beautiful football on the new surface, not least when the Championship’s

passing sides such as Swansea City and Doncaster Rovers come to visit – a prospect Poyet relishes.

“They're going to be great games. They're the games that are going to be the bigger challenges

because we are used to having the ball, and in those games we're going to share the ball with

somebody else and that means you're are going to have a feeling like ‘Whoa, what's going on? We

normally have the ball!’ - That's something we'll need to learn because we're going to another level

where there are better teams and better players. We won't have the ball as much as we have had this

year so we need to make sure we are more clinical and that we defend better. I think we need to

improve.”

There will be plenty of opportunity for improvement. Rumours are circulating on fan forums that

Bloom is planning to invest £10m into the squad for next season and that he has the top six in his

sights. With that sort of expectation comes the pressure on the manager to perform.

“I think that everything is looking up and it's going to get better. I think the future of Brighton is very

bright,” says Poyet, before delivering a bite of reality: “The only problem is that needs to come with

the results. It doesn't matter how many things you've got - any football team will fail if you don't get

the results, so I need to make sure we get the right results.”

Poyet certainly has a knack for finding the right results down here at Brighton and Hove Albion so

far and he cites the three away games at Plymouth, Charlton and Peterborough as the moments he

was proudest of this season, confirming what they had been working so hard on with 2-0, 4-0 and 3-

0 victories respectively. He also hails Sandaza’s 95th minute goal at the Withdean against Oldham as

a “great moment” as it saw his side move clear at the top.

The allotted time is almost up and the players pass us out onto the training ground in the morning sun

to prepare for the weekends’ fixture against Southampton, full of excitement and laughing with one

another. I ask Poyet to imagine, for a moment, that this season has been a holiday. If he was to send a

postcard to somebody, what might it say?

“Being totally honest?” he asks. Before stating quite simply: “We are the champions!”

John Ryan

Here is a sweet interview I did with John Ryan!

John Ryan walked solemnly behind the coffin as it made its way through the streets

of Doncaster. Wreaths were laid at the gates of Belle Vue stadium. Doncaster Rovers’

Football League status had died, and the club were not just on the brink of Conference

football - but extinction altogether.

Chairman Ken Richardson had bled the club dry. All but three professional players were left

on the books, but that wasn’t all. Two years previous, Richardson had paid some goons to

torch the main stand at Belle Vue in the hope the insurance money would cover the club’s

debt. An act he would later atone for at her Majesty’s pleasure.

In scenes reminiscent of a Robin Hood script, a teary eyed member of the procession begged

Ryan to save the club: “Is there anything you can do?” – twelve years on, and the man who

made a career enhancing assets in the cosmetic surgery business has clearly done more than a

bit of nip/tuck on Doncaster Rovers.

“It’s been a labour of love,” starts Ryan, “When I took the club over in '98 it was on its

knees. Richardson had been sent to prison, he'd burnt the stand down and we were in non-

league football so it's been a long journey back but I said I'd like to see the club back in the

Championship where I first watched them in the fifties and it's a great feeling to think that

we're back there now.”

I meet the outgoing and exceptionally friendly Ryan outside Bristol City’s Ashton Gate

ground, where despite losing 1-0, Championship football looks set to stay in Doncaster for

another season. We’re stood next to his monolithic Bentley with its personalised number

plate, and the sun shines down on the chairman and I, just like it has done for the Rovers for

the last decade.

A self-made millionaire and lifelong Doncaster Rovers fan, Ryan had long dreamt of

being involved with the club he had watched from the terraces from as young as seven. He

pioneered cosmetic surgery in Europe and turned a small 1970’s company called Transform

into a multi-million pound business within twenty years, before selling up and taking the lead

role in the Rovers’ incredible story.

“Well, I was a director from ‘89 to '94 and Ken Richardson came in and I couldn't stomach

him so I left. Then in '98, when the club was finished, I went to the last game against

Colchester at Belle Vue thinking that was the last game I'd ever see of Doncaster Rovers. As

things transpired, I managed to buy the club and the rest is history.”

Buying the club for £50,000 might be considered a steal, but the task that lay ahead for Ryan

and the Rovers was colossal. Starting the next season in the Conference, the team’s first

game was away at Dover Athletic, but the problem was, Doncaster didn’t have a team. After

picking up players at various lay-bys and service stations along the way, Ryan recalls seeing

his mercenaries beaten 1-0: “Well in a way we were pleased we got a team out. We lost 1-

0 but we were celebrating losing 1-0 because we didn't really have a team! I nearly had my

boots in the car myself!”

If the fans had thought Richardson was a madcap chairman, imagine the whispers around

South Yorkshire when Ryan told them that he would take the club not only back to the

Football League, but into the Championship within ten years. Not only that but he promised

them a trip to Wembley returning with the resulting silverware and a new stadium. It took

Rovers five years to crack the Conference, but League Two was won in their first season

back in the League, going up as champions. The trophy cabinet had a purpose once more.

As Ryan acknowledges some Rovers fans that walk past and say hello, I ask him if he was

surprised when his team won League Two more than convincingly. “No, I expected it!”

he exclaims, “I told everyone to get money on at 33/1! The outsiders for the League were

Carlisle, York and Doncaster. Carlisle and York went down to the Conference and Doncaster

won the League. I always thought we'd get promotion because we made some great signings.

We brought in Leo Fortune-West, Michael McIndoe and Greg Blundell and John Doolan. So

I always thought we were going to do well, and we did.”

Along the way, Ryan also managed to fulfil a childhood dream of his and broke a Guinness

World Record in the process when stepped out on the pitch as a player, a month shy of his

53rd birthday: “I am the oldest professional footballer. I played for Doncaster Rovers against

Hereford United, I started warming up and we were losing 2-0 and by the time I went on

it was 4-2 to Rovers. No one wanted to be subbed for me!” He smiles as he recounts the

memories of that day and his motivation for doing it: “I always wanted to play for Rovers

when I was young and I thought well... why not? I only had two or three minutes and I didn't

even touch the ball, but I can say I played!” And hastily adds: “With a hundred percent

record!”

The thing about John Ryan is that he isn’t looking to make a quick buck from a club like

so many in football at the moment. In fact he is quick to point out that “that was never the

intention. I doubt anyone will make any money out of Doncaster Rovers, I certainly haven't

and I don't know anyone else that has!” He just wants to see his hometown team back where

they should be. In 2008, after four seasons in League One and a trip to the Millennium

stadium where the club won the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy, the team found themselves facing

Yorkshire rivals Leeds United at Wembley. The trip to North London, as promised, ten

seasons after Ryan took them over.

When asked what his highlight of the last decade has been, Ryan instantly replies “Beating

Leeds at Wembley, I don't think anything can beat that.” For that was the game that saw his

beloved team finally take their spot back in Championship with a 1-0 win against all the

odds. So what is the secret behind this success?

“Stability,” he says, as if the answer is obvious, “In all that time we've had two managers.

Sean O'Driscoll's been with us five years and before that we had Dave Penney who was with

the club for about eight years. We've had a lot of stability on the management side and the

board of directors and also the players. Although we've had to turn players over as we go

up the leagues, a lot of the players have stayed with us for a period of time and I think that

stability means a lot in football.”

He is quick to add in that “It's the power of positive thinking,” before reiterating the

exceptionally ambitious ideas that probably caused a few to snigger in the bars around

Doncaster: “I thought we could do it. I said it right at the beginning that I would get the club

back in the Football League at that stage and not only do that, but I would get them back to

the second division which is now the Championship. I said we'd get a new stadium and that

we'd appear at Wembley and we've done all that... and Cardiff as well, just to top the lot.”

Positivity is the key at Doncaster and this is reflected in their beautiful style of football that

has won them many plaudits on the rise to the top. Dubbed ‘The Arsenal of League One’ at

one stage, Sean O’Driscoll has the Rovers passing the ball, moving it forward quickly and

that style has ultimately kept the team at this level, where they might not compete financially

with their peers but their on-pitch antics are described by their proud chairman as “a joy to

watch.”

As a new breed of youngsters are turned to the Keepmoat Stadium and attendances grow with

the Rovers’ reputation, Ryan has a huge amount of respect for the fans of this club who could

so easily go and watch other Yorkshire teams in the form of Leeds and the two Sheffields.

One set of fans, the Viking Supporters Co-operative help raise money for the club with raffles

and auctions and in return are offered a certain degree of transparency between the board and

themselves. Ryan attends regular AGM meetings in return and is well aware that many in his

position wouldn’t necessarily see it their duty to mix with the great unwashed, regardless of

the money the fans put into their clubs.

“I think it's very important,” he begins, although there are a few technicalities in the

relationship: “It's not always possible when you're going after players, because you don't

want it released on a message board that you're after so-and-so because you could lose the

player but the reality is that the fans have stuck with us over the years and I think they've

been incredibly well rewarded because we've had so much success.”

Possibly the greatest coup for the club was the signing of Billy Sharp from Sheffield United

last summer after a prolific spell on loan at the club. Ryan and the rest of the board dipped

into their own pockets to raise the club record £1.15m fee for the striker. Knowing Sharp

could be the difference in Rovers’ fortunes this season “JR”, as he is known by the fans,

lauds it as his best bit of business: “I persuaded my partners in the business to put the money

up to pay for Billy Sharp and it's been a great investment. 16 goals in 28 games,” before

adding: “If he'd been playing today we'd have won that game.”

Sharp’s omission today has been the icing on the cake for what has been a torturous

campaign for Donny, who had initially started so well and Ryan exudes further belief in his

side as he explains where it all went wrong: “If it wasn't for the chronic injury list I think

we'd have at least been in the top ten or maybe the top six. On New Year’s Day when we

beat Scunthorpe 3-0 we were looking good for the play-offs. Since then we've had 14 players

injured. You just can't legislate for that.”

So is John Ryan looking to re-evaluate his ambitions for Doncaster Rovers? After this

whirlwind decade, why should he stop now?

“I'd like to see us in the Premier League, obviously, but I wouldn't be so miffed if we were

still in the Championship because I think the Championship is a great league.” He says before

suggesting that Doncaster might have a couple of years at this level still, if the giants keep

crashing down from the Premier League: “It's difficult for us in the Championship because

our gates are relatively small but football is a difficult game and it's a very competitive

business, especially in the Championship.”

One thing is for sure, with Ryan’s past record, you wouldn’t want to rule out the Rovers in

the race for the Premiership under the guidance of a man who is just giving something back

to the club he has loved since childhood on what he tells me is: “One of the most incredible

journies in football”. I ask for his thoughts are on chairmen who want to try and turn a club

into something they can profit from: “Good luck to them,” he says “Some of them do it but

the vast majority don’t.”

And what of someone trying to do another Donny? To emulate the success of John Ryan

and take over a team on the brink of extinction and to turn them into a respectable club, run

without debt with a trophy cabinet glimmering with the bounty of twelve prosperous years.

Ryans advice is simple: “Don’t!” He chuckles, “Lightning doesn’t strike twice!”