It was certainly a welcome surprise for those who attended our special stadium event with Steve Coppell and Alan Smith.
As a former England international and Manchester United player, people will have expected plenty of interesting stories from Steve on the night.
That’s exactly what they got in abundance, but less expected was when Steve revealed a bag of ‘goodies’ that included England caps and FA Cup medals. At this point Alan briefly interrupted with a quick quip, ‘‘I should have brought in my Suburban League winners’ medal!’
Steve posing for pictures with fans and his honours was a fitting way to end a hugely enjoyable evening that raised funds for training ground equipment.
After an intro by host Aaron Paul, the event started with Alan Smith summing up why he and Steve had reunited – they were previously the management team at Crystal Palace together – for an evening at Wimbledon.
Alan said: “I am sure some Wimbledon fans here will be thinking, ‘why are Alan and Steve Coppell doing this?’ The reason I’m doing this is because of the people at Wimbledon who helped me to have a successful career – Ron Noades, Bernie Coleman and Allen Batsford. “I’m 78 now, and I feel so lucky to have had the career that I did in football – a lot of that was down to Wimbledon and the people there. For me, this is a payback night to Wimbledon for everything they did for me.
“Allen was one of the best coaches I ever worked for. He was absolutely brilliant, as hard as nails, a disciplinarian. He was absolutely top drawer and I learned so much from him. As I progressed in my career, I met with Brian Clough and Jack Charlton and they both asked, ‘how is Allen?’ That was the respect he had in the game.”
After cutting his teeth as manager of Wimbledon’s reserves in the 1970s, Alan went onto Dulwich Hamlet and Crystal Palace, where he was Assistant to Steve, before taking over as manager and leading the Eagles back into the Premier League as Champions in 1993.
Though it was the best part of half a century since Alan’s coaching apprenticeship at Wimbledon, one or two tales from those days signalled laughs-a-plenty from the audience. These included Alan picking up the keys to our old stadium at Plough Lane and mistakenly taking them home with him, before denying all knowledge, and telling his wife to hide them in his garden shed!
However, Alan recalled a happy ending to that particular tale.
“In 1990 Steve led Crystal Palace to Wembley with me as Assistant, so I sent a letter to Allen,” he said. “In the letter I said that I owed everything to him and as a thank-you I included a few tickets for the FA Cup Final. I ended the letter with ‘PS – the Plough Lane office keys are in Manor Way, Mitcham, if you want to pop around!’
After being introduced on stage by Alan, Steve outlined his reasons for being at Wimbledon.
“I personally don’t do the after dinner circuit, it’s only special occasions for me,” said Steve. “We were asked to do something here at Wimbledon and my motivation for doing this is because Wimbledon are a community club. In an age of absentee billionaires owning football clubs and even countries owning clubs, for me the essence of football is community. The very fact that Wimbledon have become a fabulous community club – a Phoenix from the Ashes – is my main motivation to come here tonight and say a few words, which you might find interesting.”
That was certainly the case for the audience as they listened intently to Steve’s stories, starting with his early days as a footballer when he swapped Tranmere Rovers for Manchester United. Three FA Cup Finals followed in the late 1970s, including stopping his boyhood team Liverpool from winning the treble, before United were beaten 3-2 by Arsenal in 1979.
The scorer of the winning goal on that day was Alan Sunderland and Steve unveiled the jersey he received from his opponent after swapping shirts as one of his prized possessions from his ‘goodie’ bag. Steve said that he had turned down big money offers for the shirt, which was amongst a plethora of his top honours from the game – all back in his possession after a clear-out of his late mother’s house.
After a break for drinks, an entertaining Q&A took place with Steve asked to name the best player he ever played against. Diego Maradona was the emphatic answer and Steve was also full of praise for a player very familiar to Dons supporters – Andy Thorn. The former Wimbledon and Palace defender was referred to as the ‘cleverest defender’ he had ever worked with.
Steve also recalled a funny tale from the fairways in the Far East when he bumped into a Manchester United fan on the golf course. He refused to believe that Steve played for the Red Devils – even after googling a picture of Steve in his United playing days!
After a rousing round of applause from the audience, the event concluded with fans meeting Steve and posing for pictures with his career mementoes – a very apt conclusion to a memorable evening.
All at AFC Wimbledon thank Steve and Alan for a fantastic night of entertainment, which raised valuable funds for training ground equipment.
PICS: Chris Thorpe
