AFC Wimbledon 1–1 Port Vale
Our first league draw in nearly 6 months
After four straight league wins, and four new contracts the mood around Plough Lane felt bright enough to run the floodlights off it.
We’d seen off Blackpool, climbed the table, and looked like a team that enjoys its own company.
Port Vale was a tricky one, awkward and physical, the sort of match that tests whether momentum is confidence or coincidence.
They brought two ex-Dons in Ronan Curtis and Ben Heneghan, both apparently still auditioning for the role of “gritty antagonist.”
We had four regular starters missing, but a record crowd packed the stands anyway, curious to see whether this run had more legs.
The Team
Also involved: Hackford subbed on, scored instantly, and probably wondered why we don’t start him every week. Octcock - replaced Browne and we instantly looked a more balanced team.
Notable absences: Hippolyte and Johnson on duty with Grenada and Ireland (Northern). Lewis was nursing a sore rib and Stevens’ hamstrings turning out to be made of cheesestrings.
The Match:
Vale began brighter, a polite way of saying we were asleep. Corners rained in. Ben Garrity glanced wide, Byers headed against the bar, and Bishop kept muttering things unfit for publication.
Our first half was mostly spent rehearsing how not to clear a cross. Still 0–0 at the break, not to be sniffed at.
After tea, oranges, and what we assume was a Skiverton-shaped monologue with multiple expletives, we woke up.
Reeves © whipped a free-kick just over. Bugiel’s header forced a save. The crowd found its voice. Asiimwe cut inside and curled one that Amos tipped away brilliantly.
Then the moment. Seventy minutes. Harbottle’s cross, Bugiel flick, Heneghan fluffed, and Hackford (who had been on for roughly the time it takes to say his name) slotted home. His fourth of the season, and 8,030 people pretending they never doubted him.
We looked set to see it out until the inevitable. Five minutes left, Smith slipped, Stockley shot, Bishop saved, and Cole bundled in the rebound. One of those goals that feels like dropping a cup of tea on your lap.
Four minutes added. Nothing happened.
Full time.
What the fans are saying:
Over on WUP, the debate started before full-time. Someone asked if Jake Reeves © could be reported under the Code of Conduct for “excessive leadership”. Another wondered if Smith’s slip for the equaliser technically brought the club into disrepute.
The Facebook groups continued to amuse. Full of heart, misspellings, and fury. One fan uploaded a selfie with the caption “HACKFORD 4 PRIME MINISTER.” Another wanted to know if the reduced food truck options are part of the new fan-experience pilot.
And someone ended a discussion with, “Decent point. Still hate the away kit we wore today”
Over in the Family Section, a Dad was heard telling his kids a story between corners.
There is a group of Wombles who live under the stadium, deep in the tunnels beneath Plough Lane.
They call their burrow WombleWorld.
Down there, they write to keep their spirits alive. Match reports, jokes, and strange little truths about the DTB passed hand to hand by candlelight.
They desire no individual limelight, nor credit. Only the hope that one day their nonsense might be taken seriously.
When a Wimbledon fan laughs, the walls of WombleWorld tremble with the satisfaction of a job well done.
Then a light flickers, a pie disappears, and somewhere deep in the tunnels a new idea forms, already slightly overconfident, and the Wombles get to work…
Womble of the Week: Antwoine Hackford!
Four goals this season, all moments not just goals, each like an exclamation mark dropped onto a sentence that wasn’t expecting it!
He seems to find space where others find excuses. Came on, changed the tone, and nearly stole the headlines! A natural finisher and a chaos merchant.
Signed permanently and already looking like daylight robbery. Whoever sanctioned that deal deserves a statue!
Closing Thoughts
Our first draw of the season and our least chaotic afternoon for weeks. Four starters out, a record crowd in, and unbeaten in five.
It felt a bit flat at times, but flat in a “professional football club doing its job” kind of way.
We keep the points ticking, the smiles faintly smug, the season very much alive and we continue to look upwards.
WombleWorld
We’re 124% unofficial, and the name doesn’t matter as long as you enjoy the jokes. Besides, this way we can’t be stopped for standing for the DTB in future for making inappropriate comments about Craig Cope and his backgammon addiction.