I’ve just found out Millicent Martin is still alive, so maybe she could do the musical intro for this next year?
It’s close season, the weeks sans football are upon us, and 25/26 becomes an ever fading memory.
TWTSTW is always a good way to finally close the chapter on the campaign just gone, as it sometimes means I don’t have to think about it any more.
This time round, it’s not quite so bad. Not as good as last year, but on the flip side we do get a bit longer to enjoy the downtime.
So…
This was a better season than predicted.
You can tell what sort of campaign it was when you get to March and the first game of the season felt like it was a week ago.
If, at the start of 25/26, you offered everyone a finishing position two places above the drop zone, you would have not only your arm snapped off but probably your shoulder as well.
It wasn’t undeserved, it wasn’t a fluke us staying up – indeed, it might have been considered unfair if we had dropped back down.
Lest we forget, people weren’t exactly brimming with optimism before the season kicked off, especially with a pretty piss-poor pre-season campaign.
And try saying that last sentence with a stammer.
Fourth from bottom if we’re lucky, relegated by October if we weren’t. Gubbings every week, and about four goals scored in total.
Our decent(ish) start was a blessed relief though, and while it faded at times the only time we looked like we could drop was when the April from hell descended upon us.
But we’d had enough credit in the bank – and boy, was our late winner at Wigan up there in importance – to ensure we were a third tier side for next season.
The cup runs were nothing of note, to put it mildly. Our FAC loss to Gateshead was one of the low points of the campaign.
We had a little run in the ex-JPT, but again we fell short when we could have kicked on.
And perhaps that’s the takeaway from 25/26 – nearly but not quite. 90% of the way there, yet the 10% needed would make so much more difference.
With this all said, who would have predicted we would beat the League champions at home and do the double over Reading…?
The first XI was a decent side.…
It was perhaps no coincidence that the best periods of the season came when we were able to put out a full-strength outfit.
Players like Browne, Seddon, Johnson, Maycock and latterly the returning Tilley were more than good enough to handle League One football.
Matty Stevens did too, except it was a season plagued by injury for him. It wasn’t a surprise when he did return that finding the net became de rigeur for him again.
When it played well together, it played like a mid-table side. That run of games that ended with us beating Blackpool 4-1 at PL almost set us dreaming of a late playoff push.
The Football Gods decreed otherwise, as we all know, but being in that position to begin with wasn’t a matter of luck.
Keeping a lot of the L2 playoff winning side helped, it would have been tempting to have broken it up.
But as we had about less than four weeks break, continuity was the key out of necessity rather than anything.
We strengthened here and there, some positions were filled better than others, but for the most part it was still the nucleus of a successful squad.
…but we had very little strength in depth.
Had we been looking forward (?) to League Two in August, there would have been two pivotal moments where it all went wrong.
The first was the south stand giving it the biggun about playing Tottenham next season, after we were gubbing Blackpool.
It always seemed a tall order, and after that was almost a punishment for our barefaced cheek.
However, where the brown stuff hit the fan was that dreadful Easter Monday against Luton.
It wasn’t so much that we lost, and lost heavily, although that was painful enough – especially after being robbed after a credible display at Lincoln the previous Good Friday.
But in that very game alone, we lost Bauer and Lewis in the first half, then Bugiel later on and we only barely saw Bauer since.
Add Tilley and Stevens previously, Johnson going off at Sincil Bank, then Browne towards the end and it became trying to stay in League One with a Vertu trophy lineup.
Ordinarily, you would be able to at least field replacements who can do the proverbial job, but needing to recall Kai Jennings and Foyo from Sutton, along with Riley Horan told its own story.
By the end, we were relying on a 18-year old with two goals (Junior Nkeng), a 21-year old who didn’t find the net all season in the league (Sasu), and a loanee from Switzerland who played just ten games all season (Layton Stewart).
And I hadn’t mentioned Daniel Orsi, who came to us in the summer, impressed so much that he was sold to Crawley in January, and almost became a National League player.
Some players were reaching the end of the road. Jake Reeves became slower, and one hopes his automatic contract extension will be put to better use on the coaching side of things.
Riley Harbottle disappeared across the horizon in January, in a transfer nobody bar those directly involved will know why it happened.
Although apparently his departure meant we got in Tilley, which was a gamble that ultimately paid off.
Had even just a couple of the injured players been able to remain fit and able, the latter slump would likely not have happened.
After all, the talk in March was to get the most L1 points tally in the AFCW era. And it wasn’t bluster either.
Our defence became a liability.
When we got promoted this time last year, the moment we scored first in a game was the signal for the opposition to walk off the field and accept defeat.
Time moves on though. Our defence became a little bit older, and a little bit slower, which in League One was a killer.
In total, we had eight clean sheets, and just two 0-0 draws, which was a far cry from the previous campaign.
From St Patrick’s Day alone, we conceded 23 goals, and not all of that was down to missing our regular defenders.
What people were predicting at the beginning of the season was starting to come true from mid-March onwards, with mitigating circumstances.
But even at full strength, our back line in particular never properly felt solid.
Lewis may or may not be an AFCW player next season, and he was released by Stockport at this level for a reason.
Bauer had his moments, but he was often playing whilst injured and maybe we can’t (literally) afford to keep signing players with a semi-permanent niggle?
It wasn’t a total loss at the back, mind you. Steve “Steve” Seddon returned and justifiably got the Player of the Season award.
Perhaps the best bit of transfer business we did all summer.
Ogundere made right back his own, but whether the Craig Cope (PBUH) OS update that appear while I was writing this is an indication, who knows?
It’s an interesting read, no less because he admits that L1 was more of a jump than he realised, but if there’s “definitely” defenders arriving…
Johnnie Jackson did a good job.
No, he didn’t always get it right. And sometimes, one can think he’s ideologically opposed to the concept of substitutions.
But considering he’s at a club where your hands are tied probably more than they should be, he earned another year here.
It’s likely that his knowledge of L1 helped keep us in the third tier, especially if you think his Charlton experience counts for something.
Like so much of the season, it wasn’t all sweetness and light. The saloon bar rumours suggested that at the beginning of 2026 he was looking elsewhere.
That he’s still here in SW17 as we read is either proving the gossip as bollocks, or he’s biding his time.
As soon as a decent offer comes along, he’ll be off. And you wouldn’t really blame him.
There’s still plenty do under him. Our set pieces – attacking and defending – were something that really need working on next season.
How many times did we concede from our own corners/free kicks? Far too many.
His backroom staff help, although Dave Reddington being (probably) replaced by Jake Reeves may sound a downgrade.
JJ has been here for three whole seasons, and unlike his first campaign the vast majority of supporters are happy to see him in the dugout.
Though in that time, he still gives the impression he hasn’t slept for a week beforehand.
50+1 returned and passed pretty easily.
And the AFCW world moved on quite quickly without much fuss.
Perhaps the most important event of 25/26 happened off the field, and in fact happened over a number of days.
As the harsh financial realities of being a football club became ever more obvious, the change in ownership model became almost inevitable.
The turnout and the percentages told their own story, and I think the rank-and-file simply wanted to move on.
At the time of writing, there’s not been a formal proposal for an external investor to come in, and unfortunately these things take much longer than you would hope.
That we’re no longer constitutionally bound to repel anyone who even things of investing more than the minimum was quite a colossal step, when you think about it.
Our supporters finally became evil little capitalists saw the writing on the proverbial wall this past twelve months.
They saw that teams like Burton were outspending us, despite us having bigger crowds and spending more on tickets and concessions than many.
We’ve long been financially poor, but 25/26 saw us effectively being the underclass. And this in a new stadium with good support.
The realisation that you can sweat the Plough Lane asset as much as you want and it still doesn’t generate enough to make us comfortable became very real.
There were still a few people who tried to keep the old methods alive, to hold back the tide.
When 50+1 got returned to the voting public, a few on social media were practically begging for wealthy people to put just a little bit of money in for what was available, without the need to release more equity.
Though it was telling the people most attached to this method never went to games, and indeed some weren’t even UK based.
The We Are Wimbledon Fund** tried yet another fundraising push for the transfer kitty. It tried to get £250k or so but raised about a tenth of that.
** – the WAWF means well, but its ideological zeal over fan ownership was occasionally part of the problem.
It might end up become a general fundraiser, with quiz nights and play on the PL pitch type ventures, which it’s better suited for.
The problem with those two approaches, and others, was that it was exactly what we’ve been doing for at least the past decade.
Just about everything that was being suggested that wasn’t 50+1 had already been done and exhausted.
The re-opening of the Plough Lane bond this summer is aiming for £3m, although by the time this is published hasn’t reached £200k yet.
Maybe that will eventually grow to a seven figure sum by the start of the season, but that too might be struggling.
So with all that in mind, it shouldn’t have been a surprise that a change in ownership model finally happened.
Our problems were, and still are, different to most clubs. They might have stonking debt (which the EFL will try and contain, yet will probably fail) but they’ll likely be able to cover them in one way, shape or form.
Our debts on paper may be smaller in comparison, but because we don’t have much cash we could legitimately go belly up at a fraction of the amount owed by others.
That wasn’t just an AFCW problem, York City got promoted to the EFL again and are looking to sell some of their equity.
The problems of Exeter City were well known, and they may have looked at our 50+1 vote and started to make their own plans.
Effectively, just when clubs like ours were finding the answers, the football industry changed the questions.
For the most part, 50+1 was greeted with relief and a bit of optimism for the future, rather than trepidation.
Though it might be no small irony that the biggest ever DT-related vote was the one that significantly reduced its ultimate power…
Plough Lane remains nice.
How long has it been open now? About half a decade?
Our home was a bit more lived in, but it didn’t have that new-but-not-well-maintained feel that can sometimes be apparent at other venues.
The concessions went to Aramark, who seemed to do a better service than the previous suppliers.
The bars seemed as busy as ever, the collapse of By The Horns didn’t seem to make too much difference (though I never bought anything from them).
None of the food and drink was cheap, although that’s the case for all in-stadium catering. And I can vouch for the media being better looked after by them than previously.
There was a bit of angst when a certain pie company departed the food truck area of the south stand, and let everyone know about it on social media.
Judging by the queues people didn’t stop spending elsewhere. And dare I say it, the pies you now get in the club kiosks are as good.
They’re minor in the grand scheme of things, but it did seem like we were heading in the right direction.
Granted, you see quite a few frequenting Greggs across the road, and at various watering holes elsewhere.
But that’s just normal footfall and not everyone will eat/drink in the ground anyway.
There remained some issues. The ticket problems still persist, insofar as the empty seats for supposedly “sold out” fixtures.
It was something that has never quite been fixed, and you have to wonder if there’ll be a big reset in the next couple of years over it.
DonsTix was a good introduction though, transferring tickets wasn’t a problem and was relatively painless to use.
Some changes in the culture didn’t go down well, the arrangement for the End of Season awards spring to mind.
I forgot what they were, although a number of people seemed unhappy at them.
The cultural shift from playing at KM to now playing at PL has mostly happened. Although some clearly still think it should be done in a big manky hall, with Ivor Heller holding a semi-functioning microphone.
One thing that did strike me in 25/26 was how many (semi) familiar faces are no longer around.
Some don’t go any more, some aren’t able to, and some have the slight problem of being a bit dead.
There were away games that I went to where I had a job recognising a lot of those who travelled up too, and the generational tipping point may have already happened.
Home games are a bit different, but that too is seeing many more incomers these days. Which is good for the future health of the support, even if it starts making anyone over 45 feel a bit old.
But Plough Lane remains the best thing we ever did as AFCW, and like the club itself – there’s bags of potential that just needs to be realised.
We didn’t have to put up with Franchise.
Oh well, nice while it lasted…