AFC Wimbledon feel 'sense of wonder' after odyssey to Football League

Erik Samuelson, AFC Wimbledon's chief executive, left, talks with the manager, Terry Brown, on the training pitch. Photograph: Tom Jenkins for the Observer

Nine years ago AFC Wimbledon began a story that continues to flare as a beacon in football's era of greed and commercial imperative. When Terry Brown sends out his side against Bristol Rovers for their debut in the Football League on Saturday, a quest that was dreamed up in the Fox and Grapes on Wimbledon Common on 28 May 2002 will have been achieved.

The odds they had to overcome were immense, but the determination of hardcore Dons fans was unbending and the mood of the sporting gods favourable. AFC's passage to League Two was secured on 21 May when Danny Kedwell, the captain, thumped home the deciding penalty to defeat Luton Town 4-3 in the Blue Square Premier play-off final at Eastlands, following a goalless game.

That Tuesday nine years ago had begun with a Football Association commission voting two to one to allow Wimbledon FC, the alma mater of the Crazy Gang and the 1988 FA Cup winners, to be ripped from south London where they had been since 1889, and relocated to Milton Keynes as the MK Dons.

The bitterness regarding a decision taken by Raj Parker, a solicitor, and Steve Stride, a former Aston Villa director, still lingers (FA Council member Alan Turvey voted against). Adam Crozier, then the FA chief executive, described the decision as "appalling".

Dave Boyle was recently forced to resign as the chief executive of Supporters Direct after sending offensive tweets to Parker when AFC's promotion was confirmed, with the Premier League threatening to withdraw its ?1.2m funding to SD due to the row.

Yet beyond the disgust is the glow of deserved satisfaction. Erik Samuelson, the club's chief executive, says: "Looking back I feel an immense amount of pride on behalf of everybody involved. And a sense of wonder: that we did it, somehow. If you think about where we started, on Wimbledon Common, and ended up, about to step out for our very first game in the Football League."

AFC's first match was a friendly on 10 July 2002 in front of 4,654 at Sutton United's Gander Green Lane. It featured Glenn Mulcaire, of phone hacking infamy, who is feted as the scorer of the club's inaugural goal. The starting XI sent out by the manager, Terry Eames, in a 4-3-3 formation reads: Andy Hunt; Drew Watkins, Simon Johnstone, Kevin Tilley, Dave Towse; Neil Northcott, Mehmet Mehmet, David Fry; Joe Sheerin, Dean Martin, Mulcaire.

AFC lost 4-0 but the result hardly mattered. Tilley, then 43, recalls: "I'd played for the side in the 70s that had kicked, bollocked and bit and got itself in the Football League. Terry called me out of the blue and asked if I could help out. I did a bit of pre-season training and then played at Sutton. It was really just to get the club going, proving the name doesn't die."

They began in the ninth tier of the pyramid, five promotions from professional football. How did the club rise so quickly? "In the early years we were [one of] the most powerful clubs in the Combined Counties and in the two leagues of the Ryman," Samuelson says. "We had financial muscle and we were able to build a really strong team. In the first season the original budget for the team was ?700 a week. Our average crowd was 3,000 and the adult cost of getting on to the terrace was ?9. It doesn't take you long to work out we had quite a lot of money to spare. We got 111 points that season and didn't get promoted because two other teams outspent us.

"In the second season we weren't extravagant, but thought: 'We are not having this.' So we made sure we won the league. When we started to stall [between 2005 and 2007] it was a combination of getting the right manager [Brown], making sure that he felt absolutely supported, and that the fans understood completely what we were trying to do so that everyone stayed on board.

"One of the things we said all the way through was that we wanted to do things properly. Whether it be getting into the Football League: get in through the pyramid. Or when dealing with the fans and public: do it properly."

Brown has guided AFC to three promotions since taking over in May 2007, with AFC still playing at Kingstonian's old ground, Kingsmeadow, which they bought after initially sharing. Samuelson says: "It was obvious that we would only really thrive if we owned our own ground. We paid ?2.4m for an established stadium that was capable of being upgraded to league standards."

Kris Stewart, AFC's founding chairman, who will be at Kingsmeadow on Saturday, speaks of the "weird" and "sad" atmosphere on that evening at the Fox and Grapes before the crusade for renewal replaced potential oblivion. There are now 2,500 members in the trust who own AFC, so could another club ever be uprooted in a similar, harrowing fashion? "Probably not. But then it probably wouldn't have happened in the first place. There was a very unusual set of circumstances that allowed it," Stewart says. "There is still that culture that exists [at the FA] of the independent commission nonsense that says: 'Here is an important decision about football, let's find people who don't really know what they're talking about and devolve our responsibility for running the game to them.'

"One of the most annoying things was that those people who made the decision will never have to account for it. The FA should have the guts and the balls to run football in this country."

Now, though, an odyssey can be enjoyed while Brown blends his summer recruits Max Porter, from Rushden & Diamonds, Jack Midson (Oxford United), Matt Mitchell-King (Crewe Alexandra), and Charles Ademeno (Grimsby Town) into the squad.

Sheerin, part of that original AFC XI and rated the club's finest player, suggests the heritage of the Crazy Gang is intact: "The spirit was what kept me at the club for three seasons – we probably got away with more stuff because we were non-League. I'm trying to think of something that's not X-rated. We did once have a naked protest on the back of the coach because the driver wasn't allowed to stop at the off-licence after a match. I don't think that company used us again, and the chairman at the front was not too pleased."

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Stuart Broad a class above after his first hat-trick since schooldays

Stuart Broad of England celebrates taking his hat-trick with the wicket of Praveen Kumar of India. Photograph: Tom Shaw/Getty Images

Stuart Broad said Saturday's hat-trick meant more to him than the last one he achieved – for Oakham School Under-15 side.

"The atmosphere wasn't quite as good at school, with the parents watching," he said, after performing the first hat-trick against India in Test cricket. "But it won't mean much if we don't go on and win this Test match. Tomorrow [Sunday] will be our biggest test in this match, to see if we can get 300 runs and put the Indians under pressure on the last day because I think that wicket will be pretty useful to bowl on for the seamers, with variable bounce."

Broad delighted his own home crowd for the second day in succession, following up his counter-attacking 64 on Friday that kept England in the Test.

"India had three-quarters of the day – I said this after the first day – and we nicked the last session. We're fighting hard and tomorrow is going to be a huge day if we can bat big. We need one guy to go and get a hundred, and a big hundred, and we're right in the game. And bowling last on that wicket could be an advantage for us.

"We dropped Yuvraj [Singh] on four which was a concern when he and Dravid were playing brilliantly," he said. "We knew the new-ball period would be a huge hour for us. Straussy asked us at tea if we could all raise our intensity in that hour to put some pressure on the India batsmen and fortunately there was a little swing with the new ball and the edges came our way. So we have got ourselves back in this game."

Broad admitted that he felt the edge of VVS Laxman's bat after the player had survived a strong appeal for a catch behind. HotSpot did not show up any contact and there were mischievous rumours that there may have been Vaseline on the edge of the bat.

Broad said: "Sarcastically, I had a cheeky feel of his edge the ball went past. But I just felt the edge. There was no Vaseline or anything there so I think it was just HotSpot not showing the very faint edge. It's HotSpot. We found that the really faint edges don't show up."

There was a scare for England when Jonathan Trott left the field after taking a heavy fall on his left shoulder while fielding. He tried to save a single at wide mid-off, and his team-mates called immediately for medical assistance as he lay prone. He left the ground with his arm in a sling and though a scan ruled out bone damage, he may not be able to bat on Sunday. He was receiving further treatment on Saturday night and his situation will be reassessed on Sunday morning.

Rahul Dravid, meanwhile, reflected on his second successive Saturday century in this series. It moved him level with the Indian great Sunil Gavaskar on 34 Test hundreds.

"It is fantastic to share something with the legend," said Dravid. "I don't compare myself with Mr Gavaskar – he is an absolute legend of the game – but I grew up as a kid in a generation where Gavaskar and [Gundappa] Viswanath were big heroes for us.

"In all my backyard games of cricket, I was either a Gavaskar or a Viswanath. So for me to be able to equal something that he has done is truly fantastic."

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Bolton's Lee Chung-yong out for nine months after breaking leg

Bolton's Lee Chung-yong is attended by the physiotherapist Andy Mitchell after going down injured at Newport. Photograph: Ian Smith/Action Images

The Bolton Wanderers midfielder Lee Chung-yong will be out for a minimum of nine months after breaking a leg in a pre-season friendly at Newport.

The 23-year-old South Korea international underwent a successful operation after sustaining a double fracture of his lower right leg during Wanderers' 3-1 win in south Wales on Saturday. He was carried off on a stretcher midway through the first half following a rash challenge from Tom Miller.

The club posted a statement on their website on Saturday evening confirming he was recovering in hospital and was expected to be sidelined for the bulk of the 2011-12 campaign.

Lee joined Bolton from FC Seoul in summer 2009 and has been a consistent performer for the Trotters over the past two years.

Owen Coyle, the Bolton manager, said: "We will make sure Chung-yong gets all the support he needs, as now it is all about his recovery and wellbeing. That is the most important thing. The operation went well and we would like to pass on our thanks to the medical staff involved."

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Voeckler leads after Pyrenean deadlock

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Until Saturday, a stage win on the Plateau de Beille was synonymous with overall victory in the Tour de France. Marco Pantani in 1998, Lance Armstrong in 2002 and 2004 and Alberto Contador in 2007 all moved smoothly from success at the 1,780m Pyrenean summit to the yellow jersey in Paris. That sequence, however, is unlikely to survive the victory by Jelle Vanendert, a 26-year-old Belgian rider.

While the bigger names were nullifying each other's efforts, Vanendert rode away to win a stage of his first Tour, but since the Belgian lies just over 12 minutes behind the leader of the general classification, he is extremely unlikely to become the first man to win the Tour on his debut since Laurent Fignon in 1983.

Vanendert, who rides for the Omega Pharma-Lotto team, is not well known outside Belgium. He spent the spring helping his team-mate Philippe Gilbert to win a remarkable sequence of one-day classics, and a place on the Tour was his reward. He is also the cousin of Roy Sentjens, who raced in the colours of Rabobank, Lotto and Milram and retired last year after testing positive for  EPO.

The real hero of the stage, which began in Saint-Gaudens, was Thomas Voeckler, who likes the yellow jersey so much that he simply refuses let it go. While the favourites for overall victory once again feinted and parried, Voeckler more than matched them for aggression and verve. On a day when he was expected to hand it over to one of the men with better credentials, he made himself look like a proper leader.

"I wanted to hold on to the jersey," he said. "But I didn't think I'd manage to keep it by more than a few seconds." Instead he maintained his lead of 1min 49sec over Frank Schleck, the elder of the two Luxembourg brothers whose efforts to damage their rivals for the general classification were again inconclusive.

"I was suffering today," Voeckler said after finishing seventh on a 168km stage that included the first category Col de la Core and Col d'Agnes as well as the concluding hors-categorie climb. "But I believe it was the same for everybody."

Voeckler came in as part of the group that was eventually whittled down to half a dozen behind Vanendert and Samuel Sanchez of Spain. While he launched no attacks of his own, he was the one who took much of the responsibility for surging up to the wheels of those who were trying to splinter the group.

By the time the riders reached the foot of the third climb of the day, the Col de Latrape, a lead of more than nine minutes had been established by a group of three Frenchmen – Julien El Fares of Cofidis, Sandy Casar of Francais des Jeux and Christophe Riblon of AG2R-La Mondiale – and one adopted son of the Hexagon, David Millar, who said the other day that he was as proud to be known as a Biarrot, thanks to his long-time residence in Biarritz, as a Scot.

The group contracted, expanded, and then dissolved, Jens Voigt falling twice in quick succession soon after the summit of the Port de Lers. Gorka Izagirre of Euskaltel-Euskadi was alone as he rode into Tarascon-sur-Ariege, the last town before the ascent to the Plateau de Beille, by the start of the climb itself his team-mate Ruben Perez Moreno was on the front. And then, as so often in this Tour, came a glorious but ultimately vain effort from a Frenchman, this time Casar of Francais des Jeux, who pulled out a margin of half a minute but was destined to suffer the same fate that befell Jeremy Roy 24 hours earlier, all his courage ultimately expended to no reward.

In the group where the real business was being done, Andy Schleck was the first to attack. His initiative did not shake off his rivals but it was enough to account for Alberto Contador's two Saxo Bank comrades, Jesus Hernandez and Daniel Navarro, although the defending champion himself seemed more comfortable than he had in the preceding days. The younger Schleck attacked again, and then once more, but each time his efforts were nullified by Ivan Basso, Cadel Evans or Voeckler, with Contador in their wake.

Basso spent some time setting a relatively relaxed tempo at the front of the group, and Frank Schleck had just pushed gently ahead when Vanendert attacked with just under 7km to go and was allowed to ride away and overtake the rapidly fading Casar. Basso then attacked twice, without profit, before Sanchez followed Vanendert's example and managed to escape.

Still the leaders were watching each other – prepared to wound but afraid to strike, as the saying goes. Basso went once more, then Evans. Finally Andy Schleck eased off the front of the group as the climb eased in the final couple of kilometres, just as his brother had done at Luz-Ardiden, to secure third place and cut his deficit to the leader by a couple of seconds.

In front of him, Vanendert and Sanchez were reversing the finishing order of Thursday's stage, which ended with the climb up to Luz-Ardiden. Behind came Evans and then Rigoberto Uran, Team Sky's young Colombian, who finished strongly and took the best young rider's white jersey from the French rider Arnold Jeannesson, becoming the second member of his team to wear it in this Tour. "I want to keep it all the way to Paris," he said afterwards.

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Newcastle vow to act after 'shameful' pitch invasion at Darlington

Fans scuffle after invading the pitch during Newcastle's friendly at Darlington. Photograph: Ed Sykes/Action Images

Newcastle have condemned the "shameful" behaviour of supporters who invaded the pitch during the friendly at Darlington.

The Premier League club vowed to take "the strongest possible action" against fans who caused a 10-minute delay during the 2-0 win on Friday night. The trouble occurred after Sammy Ameobi scored the second goal in the 55th minute. The match looked in danger of being called off as fighting broke out on the pitch at the Darlington Arena.

A statement from the club's managing director, Derek Llambias, read: "On behalf of everyone at Newcastle United, we wholly condemn the behaviour of a number of our supporters who invaded the pitch during the second half of the club's friendly against Darlington.

"The club will be seeking to obtain footage of the disorder from Darlington and the police and will be taking the strongest possible action against those individuals responsible for the shameful behaviour. This behaviour is not typical of the vast majority of our fans, however this incident gives a poor impression of Newcastle United and its loyal supporters."

Hatem Ben Arfa made his first appearance since breaking his leg at Manchester City last October in a strong line-up. Joey Barton, who will miss the club's tour of North America after being denied a visa, opened the scoring in the third minute when he knocked home a cross from Leon Best before Ameobi drilled home a fine shot 10 minutes into the second half.

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Tottenham's Sandro out for three months after knee surgery

The news that Sandro faces a three-month rehabilitation period after knee surgery is a big blow to Tottenham. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/for the Guardian

The Tottenham midfielder Sandro is expected to be out of action for three months after undergoing knee surgery.

The 22-year-old returned to London this week after suffering the injury on international duty with Brazil and now looks likely to miss the first two months of the season.

A statement on tottenhamhotspur.com read: "Following consultation with an independent knee specialist, Sandro underwent surgery on his left knee in London. Scans confirmed he had torn his lateral meniscus, as well as suffering a calf strain. The specialist has advised a three-month rehabilitation period before a return to full training."

The Brazilian made 19 league appearances, eight of them from the bench, for Spurs last season, scoring his only goal in the defeat to Chelsea in April.

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