Terry Skiverton shares in the belief that tapping into our past can go a long way into help shaping a successful future for our club.
“We’ve got an unbelievable past, but with our recent past – we need to improve,” said Terry in an in-depth interview ahead of the new campaign. “We’ve got to learn from it to make this a brilliant football club in the present, then we can turn into a winning team in the future.
“It’s to do with the past, it’s to do with the creation of the football club and those that have helped push it on and what it means to the local community as well. We get awards for a number of things we do within the community, and it’s making sure our new players know and get a direct link into what it means to be a part of this football club.
“I think that went missing last year, because there were so many people that came into the building. Mick Buckley, Craig Cope and the gaffer felt it was vitally important to move forward and for the players to understand what it means to play for AFC Wimbledon. The players have got to know about the story and how important it is to the borough.
“We’re creating that culture and environment that friends and family fight harder than just work colleagues.”
Terry’s own connection to our past can be traced back to the days of our previous Plough Lane home, when he went there as a youngster with Chelsea.
“The thing that I always remember is that I used to play against Wimbledon in the reserves at the old Plough Lane, so I actually played there,” said Terry. “It was when it started to wither and die a little.
“When they moved across to Selhurst Park, they didn’t have a home. They were like nomads, but no one ever wanted to go there and play them.
“With us coming back to Plough Lane and with us taking over, it seemed like too nice of a place for opposition teams to come and we’ve really had to fight to turn that around. This season, with the new signings that we’ve got in, we feel we’re pushing in the right direction to make sure that teams who come here don’t enjoy their visit!
“I started when I was seventeen. It's thirty years on the spin now - that’s a long time!
“It’s a relentless job and a relentless nature, but I would say psychologically it’s a lot easier as a player, than as an Assistant Manager. It’s been a tough summer. There’s the introduction of a whole new philosophy that things had to change.
“It was all based around young players, development and sustainability. For us to be sustainable, we’ve had to try and turn things around. It’s taken a couple of windows to do that and to make us competitive at this level. With the recruitment we’ve done this summer, we’re really looking to kick on as a football club now.”