Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
FA thought it was to make money from a private bet.. but Dons were just a bunch of bums!
BELTS off, trousers down, the full moon cost Wimbledon’s FA Cup heroes £750 each – a fortnight’s wages in many cases.
As captain, Dave Beasant had to go to the Football Association and assure the crusty old codgers the prank had not been motivated by profit.
The Crazy Gang were still in high spirits after Beasant’s penalty save and Lawrie Sanchez’s header had shocked Liverpool (below) at Wembley 32 years ago when they paraded the Cup in an end-of-season curtain call at veteran striker Alan Cork’s testimonial.
“It wasn’t planned – it was a spur-of the-moment thing,” said Beasant. “The fans had been egging us on to drop our shorts and it started with Vinnie Jones.
“They were singing ‘Vinnie, Vinnie, show us your a***,’ so we lined up on the halfway line and did it as a team.
“Someone took a photo, suddenly our backsides are all over the back pages, and the FA thought we had arranged it to make money out of a private bet or something. I got dragged down to Lancaster Gate e (the former FA headquarters) to explain lain it.”
It was pure Crazy Gang, probably the high-water ater mark of their original al incarnation. Turfed out of f their Plough Lane home, forced to ground-share at Selhurst Park and, finally, turned into a Bedfordshire franchise, the club effectively went out of existence.
Reconstituted by supporters who refused to let the Crazy Gang spirit die e – or be exported to a retail park k in Milton l Keynes – born-again AFC Wimbledon climbed the pyramid, taking just nine years to regain Football League status.
And on Tuesday night, in the most emotive milestone of all, they will return to their spiritual home in Plough Lane, christening a new stadium against Doncaster barely a goal-kick from the site of the original ground. And to Crazy Gang forefathers like goalkeeper Beasant, now 61 ( far right), it will be the most gratifying
mom moment yet of a phoe p h o e n i x c l u b’s renaissa renaissance.
“Wi Wimbledon bl d was my club and Plough Lane was my home,” he said. “I’m grateful I moved on before they became tenants at Selhurst Park and the move to Milton Keynes. To move 65 miles away and tell the fans, ‘That’s your new home’, wasn’t right.
“I joined Wimbledon from Edgware Town, went through the divisions with them, and won the FA Cup.
“I felt let down when all that history was allowed to unravel in the name of a business deal. For that group of supporters to say, ‘We are not going to stand for this’, and rebuild the club from scratch was an incredible achievement. They went from a meeting in the Fox and Grapes pub to the Football League in just 10 years.
“Now, going back to Plough Lane feels like the best achievement of all.
“It’s sad the fans can’t be there because this is their crowning moment. Th ey have had to persevere and clear so many hurdles to reach this point.
“Along with a lot of the club’s former players, I would have loved to be there, but we’re not allowed in. We have recorded some good-luck messages to be shown when the game is broadcast on Youtube.”
The former England keeper’s son, Sam, is a proverbial chip off the old block, saving penalties for fun. Dear old ‘Lurch’ himself thought he had seen it all until Beasant junior, who plays for Southern Premier League club Chesham United, conceded a penalty at Yate earlier this month... for hand-ball. “I got a text off a mate saying, ‘ You’ll never believe this...’ and, sure enough, Sam had given away a penalty. Yes, it was hand-ball in the box and, yes, it was definitely a Chesham player, but it was the goalkeeper. That’s a new one on me. “But at least it didn’t matter – Sam saved it.” A keeper giving away a penalty for hand-ball?
Even the Crazy Gang couldn’t have come up with such madness.