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A month that AFC Wimbledon and their fans (see below) won’t forget.
The pitch and indeed Plough Lane stadium flooded, just before they were set to host a huge home match against Newcastle United.
A big occasion for AFC Wimbledon, as they had already knocked out Premier League Ipswich Town in the previous round.
However, their pitch ending up more like a golf course with the damage done, flood water lifting up a significant part of the pitch and bringing the sand to the surface.
The rest as they say is history.
AFC Wimbledon having to postpone the Newcastle United match and all other home games for the foreseeable future.
The game switched to St James’ Park for a sold out (apart from a few hundred unsold seats in the ‘away’ end) moneyspinner for the League Two side.
Plus a fundraiser launched to help AFC Wimbledon seeing a great response, including many donations from Newcastle fans, plus our club putting in 15 grand.
No home matches this past month, only away defeats to Salford in League Two and at SJP in the Carabao Cup.
Until today that is.
AFC Wimbledon making a magnificent return to Plough Lane, their biggest crowd of the season turning up for the occasion.
The AFC Wimbledon players responding to the occasion, smashing four goals pas Carlisle United without reply.
Good luck to this fan-owned club and hopefully this 4-0 victory and the return home after a traumatic month,, can be just the start of better times ahead.
The Mag report – 23 September 2024:
AFC Wimbledon fans were in shock on Monday morning.
Their pitch and stadium flooded, with what is reported to be serious damage caused.
The Newcastle United match due to be played on Tuesday night now postponed, which appears to be just one of countless issues to be sorted out for the fan-owned League Two club.
What will happen now with the NUFC match, is of course the key interest for Newcastle United fans.
Played at St James’ Park instead? A bye for NUFC? Rearranged in very near future at Plough Lane or a nearby stadium? Rearranged not so near future at Plough Lane or nearby stadium?
Matters complicated by such a busy schedule for AFC Wimbledon, as well as the Newcastle United match schedule, plus of course the small matter of a two week international break coming up.
AFC Wimbledon fans commenting on news of flooding and Newcastle United match called off – Commenting via their Old Centrals’ Repository message board:
‘I would imagine the Newcastle game will be switched to SJP, as likely to be the best solution for us in terms of income. But maybe this is all alarmist and we’ll be back at PL on Sat or Tue.’
‘if the stadium is genuinely unusable for 1-2 months, we either move games or have a ludicrous fixture pile-up that may damage play-off efforts. And even if we take the hit on fixture pile-up, 1-3 will be Sat games moved mid-week which I believe income is lower from.’
‘Of course Newcastle United game had to be postponed as you can’t fix a pitch in one day. We’ll know more during the next day or so I’d guess. I’m just trying t temper the “end of the world is nigh” attitude that seems to have become a default position.’
‘Assuming match not just put back 24 hours (unlikely) – having looked at our and Newcastle’s fixture lists, I suggest the match will be played on the 4th round date in a month’s time. Unless a League match for one or both club’s were postponed to accommodate and the optics for that are not good – how many Crewe fans have booked train tix or hotel rooms for next week? Plenty of time to fit in 4th round match before 5th round date.’
‘That would seem likely – a shorter gap for whoever wins between 4th and 5th round.’
‘The other worrying thing is there is a lot more rain to come this week. This could get worse before it gets better.’
‘Having £2m cash in hand gives us some breathing space l but we all know that that was projected to be eaten up by our losses and bond repayments in less than 2 years. I would be very surprised if any insurance we have will cover all of the costs of this (repairs to the pitch and stadium, lost income, ground share costs etc) so at the very least this is going to bring our cash crunch a bit earlier than we had hoped.’
‘Just a disaster. Up to two months’ lost income from matches? Christ.’
‘If I’ve interpreted the data on OI’s website correctly then last night saw the Wandle’s highest level (at Summerstown) since records began. Seems the peak reading last night was 3.23. The site says ‘The highest level ever recorded at the River Wandle at Summerstown is 3.11m, reached on Friday 20th July 2007’
‘There was a rise of around 2m in the early hours of this morning.’
’20lb carp just found in referee’s changing room.’
‘The advice we had in advance was that flooding of this type was a 1 in 100 year type of thing, so I think that we had good reason for our approach. However, given that we have already had this flooding once in only 4 years my point is that that might suggest that the advance risk assessment was actually over- optimistic (ie wrong) and the flood risk is actually substantially more than once in 100 years (or maybe we have just been really unlucky and it won’t happen for another 96 years. I doubt that insurance companies deciding whether to offer us future cover will go for the latter view.’
‘I don’t think they’re sink holes – they look like the pitch has bubbled up and split in places – which would be likely considering the earth couldn’t absorb any more water in lots of places.’
The AFC Wimbledon pitch looks ready for golf after overnight flooding 😳 pic.twitter.com/9iYQBZ2NkW
— The72 – We Love the #EFL (@_The72) September 23, 2024
‘By the looks of the pitch etc we are gonna have to play somewhere else for a few weeks as the pitch will take weeks to repair.’
‘Back to Loftus rd it is then.’
‘Terrible news, on both a financial and footballing level. Knowing we are in a flood zone, if we didn’t have insurance, that would have been pretty negligent, so would assume we do. Rain was terrible in SE London as well, local roads and parks completely underwater near me (that haven’t been before).’
‘I can tell you how heavy it was, f…ing massive. It’s not like the pitch collapsed because someone’s fish tank overflowed a bit. It was hours and hours of constant heavy rain. And the ground isn’t unique in being in trouble this morning.’
‘I’d also say the drainage would appear to work since the pitch doesn’t look to have water sitting on top of it. Look like it’s collapsed because of the water levels under it.’
‘One thing we can say is that we will be in the 4th round draw for the first time since about 1998.’
‘I’ll be amazed if we’re back playing at Plough Lane within a month, looking at the damage.’
‘We can move the game to Newcastle if really necessary – or anywhere else. But not uncommon for league cup to have games stretched out due to fixture clashes so it doesn’t need to be a bye.’
‘Ah man. That’s a massive shame about the Newcastle game and looks like substantial damage to the pitch. Our next available midweek is 15th October so not obvious when it will slot in unless we can bump the Crawley game on the 8th.’
‘Might have to give Newcastle a bye.’
‘Pumps at stadium have failed and dressing rooms flooded.’
‘Looks bad enough plus offices,changing rooms and clubshop all flooded.’
‘Who’d of thought hey, building a football stadia on a flood plain.’
‘QPR, Brentford, palace, Fulham?’
‘Does sound like an “inside the stadium” issue. Apparently the areas outside the perimeter are virtually bone dry whilst in the food areas behind the three stands the water is ankle deep. Has a horrible feeling that the system put in to drain water has actually not just failed but actively created a problem. That of course is purely my unsubstantiated assumption.’
‘Having a browse in the old planning documents (slow day at work), seems the north and east areas are expected to be flooded and the pumps for drainage also turn off to allow the pitch to store flood water. So it seems it actually operated as it intended, but maybe the damage to the pitch is a bit more extensive than one may wish for.’
‘Think we have to play within a certain mile radius, so not necessarily London.’
‘Just thinking about Sutton but we probably got too many ST holders? No seats etc.’
‘Spending a couple of months ground sharing, just as we seem to have put together a solid squad capable of winning a few games, would be so unbelievably frustrating. Not to mention the impact on finances.’
‘They are not going to rearrange grounds for our next two home games. Far too complicated and far too short notice.’
‘Lots of talk of 2 months etc and that may / likely will turn out to be true but so far club has only officially called off tomorrow. Hope after assessment it is not as bad as it looks in the pictures.’
‘Should just use a ground we already have a groundsharing deal in place. Raynes Park Vale (Womens home ground) have improved their drainage and I believe even installed toilets inside the ground. Newcastle would love to play there.’

 
