South coast legend admits to cheeky spread betting swindle
In the season when Wimbledon FC suffered more than their fair share of inexplicable floodlight failures, The Spoiler was puzzled to see the Dons put the ball out of play straight after kick off on more than one occasion. The reason behind this apparent waste of possession has become clear, thanks to Matthew Le Tissier’s (awfully-titled) autobiography ‘Taking Le Tiss‘.
In a 2-0 victory over Wimbledon in April 1995, The Southampton legend admits that he took advantage of the emerging trend of spread betting, by placing a wager on the time of the first throw-on. If he could get the ball out of play within the first minute of the game, Le Tiss and a friend stood to make £10,000. Unfortunately, a tubby journeyman striker thwarted his plan:
“Southampton were safe from relegation and I couldn’t see a problem with making a few quid on the first throw-in.
“I went to hit it out towards Neil Shipperley but I was nervous and didn’t give it quite enough welly.
Back in 1996, The Spoiler watched a very poor Everton side demolished 4-0 by Wimbledon. The first goal came as a result of a freakish 40-yard Neal Ardley free kick, which sluggishly hit the back of Neville Southall’s net after taking a bounce.
We had seen nothing like it until today, when Hunter Freeman’s effort for Norwegian Tippeligaen side I.K. Start caught our attention. Neville Southall had the excuse of being overweight and about 600 years old - there’s little reason why this Norwegian shotstopper couldn’t have made a better effort.
Former Wimbledon hardman will pound you into shape
It appears that prolific actor Vincent Peter Jones has turned his attention to the lucrative weight loss programme market. There are probably plenty of other things he could be doing with his time, but how is a chap supposed to progress his career when he has already delivered one of the greatest lines ever delivered in cinematic history? It’s all downhill from there, Vinnie.[Funny or Die via Dirty Tackle]
Anyone game for some vital fixture list statistics?
Now that the Football League and the Premier League have completed the extraordinarily complicated process of compiling next season’s fixtures, it’s time for some fate-bating statistics. And who better to provide them than our trend-spotting chums at chickendinner:
1. The last five newly-promoted teams to kick their season off at home all avoided defeat, which is good news for Wolves who open against West Ham.
2. However, the last four to start away from home have all lost. That doesn’t bode well for Birmingham and Burnley, who start at Manchester Utd and Stoke.
3.Chelsea have won their opening game in each of the last seven seasons and this year they kick-off their campaign at home to Hull.
Vintage Ratboy footage marks anniversary of FA Cup giant killing
While Liverpool supporters will pay their respects at the Hillsborough Memorial game at Anfield tonight, today represents a very different kind of anniversary for Wimbledon fans.
It is 21 years to the day that the Dons caused one of the biggest upsets in English football history, by beating League Champions Liverpool in the 1988 FA Cup final. The Crazy Gang - whose members included Dennis Wise, Vinnie Jones and John Fashanu - proved too strong for the likes of Alan Hansen, John Barnes and Peter Beardsley on the day, coming out 1-0 winners thanks to a Lawrie Sanchez header. Unfortunately, the Wombles were denied the opportunity to compete in Europe, thanks to the ban on English teams caused by the actions of Liverpool supporters in the 1985 Heysel disaster.
It’s amazing to think that just eleven seasons earlier, top flight Wimbledon were a non league side. If such a fairytale rise through the leagues is ever to be repeated, it will probably be done by the club’s current incarnation, AFC Wimbledon. Started by fans when the original club was brutally murdered by Adam Crozier’s FA and sold to a Milton Keynes franchise in 2002, AFC will begin next season with the likes of Luton and Oxford Utd in the Blue Square Premier.
The video above is taken from the BBC’s coverage of the 1988 final (the last one to be screened on both the BBC and ITV), and shows Dennis Wise getting thoroughly embarrassed on the coach journey to Wembley. Say what you like about Wise and Vinnie Jones (who used to affectionately refer to his aforementioned colleague as ‘Ratboy’), but footballers simply aren’t as funny and honest as this when interviewed on camera any more.
Linsey Dawn McKenzie entered the world of Waggery in 1996, at the tender age of seventeen. The glamour model and pornstar enjoyed an affair with Wimbledon FC striker Dean Holdsworth, who was ten years her senior and married at the time. The tabloids made a big deal out of the fact that Deano boffed her on the bonnet of his BMW.
The star of Mammary Lane and the enigmatic Naked Striptease Sextravaganza became a bona fide WAG in 2005, when she married another former member of the Crazy Gang, defender Mark Williams (a man who also had the pleasure of romancing topless model Leilani Dowding).
Loading ...