137: Paul Heald, Wimbledon, 1996 Pro Match Soccer

Selhurst Park first opened its doors as the home of Crystal Palace in August 1924. Anyone who has had the pleasure of attending South London’s premier sporting venue will be aware that it is far from the modern Euro Bowl 3 template and, fittingly, only had one completed stand due to industrial action from the builders when 25,000 people witnessed the Glaziers lose 1-0 to The Wednesday in Division Two. Just two years later it hosted the national team in a 3-1 defeat to Wales, fittingly on St David’s Day, and, while the Three Lions have yet to return, international football was hosted there during the 1948 Summer Olympics. In more recent times it also served as the home of South London rivals Charlton Athletic between 1985 and 1991 as part of the Football League’s first ground sharing agreement. With The Addicks finally able to return to The Valley, via Upton Park, a similar agreement was struck with Wimbledon after Plough Lane was closed in line with the post-Hillsborough Taylor Report.

The 1991/92 season saw both of Selhurst’s tenants competing in the top flight but the attendance figures for their games highlight the challenges facing the Dons. John Fashanu managed twenty goals in all competitions as they finished in a solid mid-table position and picked up impressive results at their new home against high-flying Sheffield Wednesday and eventual champions Leeds United. Just over 3,000 people witnessed the former while, by comparison, their landlords saw over 21,000 people through the gates for a dead rubber draw against the same opposition. Even as Wimbledon established themselves as a top-flight side in the Premier League era, and Palace yo-yoed between the top two tiers, the Dons struggled to get the bums on the rickety seats. When my cousins visited from Dublin and took me along to a thrilling 2-2 draw with Coventry City they checked with the 75 driver if they were getting on the right bus to Selhurst Park. The driver told us Palace were playing away that week and then openly laughed when my cousin Matt said we were off to see Wimbledon. The club’s chairman, Sam Hammam, even flirted with a move to Dublin in the mid-1990s as the club struggled to find a viable new home in South London but such was the backlash from fans that the idea was quietly shelved.

In 1997 Hammam sold 80% of his shares in the club and, by the end of the 1999-2000 season, Wimbledon were under the stewardship of Norwegian businessmen Bjorn Rune Gjelsten and Kjell Inge Rokke. They were also a second tier side for the first time since 1986 following a disastrous campaign where new manager Egil Olsen was pilloried for his route one football and fondness for wellies. Gates dropped by an average of nearly 10,000 as the Dons missed out on the play-offs, despite the goals of Jason Euell, Worse was to follow ahead of the 2001/02 season when the club’s owners anno
unced their plan to relocate the club to Milton Keynes and, following the FA’s approval, many fans walked away to support the newly formed AFC Wimbledon in the Combined Counties League. Wimbledon lasted two more seasons at Selhurst Park before moving to the National Hockey Stadium in September 2003. As the club entered administration several players were sold, including Jobi McAnuff and Mikele Leigertwood, and they finished a distant bottom before emerging in the newly named League One as Milton Keynes Dons. A core of the last Wimbledon squad remained but few who had been around as long as experienced goalkeeper Paul Heald.

Heald arrived at Wimbledon as their sole recruit ahead of the 1995/96 season where he soon replaced the long serving Hans Segers as first choice keeper. He was the unlucky goalkeeper sent sprawling by Tony Yeboah’s goal of the season and soon faced competition from academy graduate Neil Sullivan who took his place in the side for the second half of the campaign. Even after Sullivan fell victim to David Beckham’s infamous halfway line strike on the opening day of the 1996/97 season Heald struggled to regain his place in the first team until after the Dons’ relegation and made more appearances on loan with Sheffield Wednesday in 2001/02 than he did for his parent club. His last competitive game was a 3-1 defeat to Rotherham United in November 2003 where he was replaced after forty minutes following a serious knee injury. His replacement, Lee Worgan, managed to get sent off half an hour later. He remained on the books with MK Dons for their maiden season and made the subs bench for a handful of games but retired at the end of the 2004/05 season without making a first team appearance. He did, however, serve as the club’s goalkeeping coach for a further fourteen years.

It would be unfair to ignore Paul Heald’s life before the various incarnations of Dons. Over seven years he notched up over 200 appearances for Leyton Orient where he helped the Os to victory in the Fourth Division play-offs in 1989 and earned himself loan spells with top flight clubs Coventry City, Crystal Palace and Swindon Town off the back of consistently impressive performances. His £125,000 move to Wimbledon was both testament to his growing reputation and proof of the more even spread of quality across the league pyramid in the early years of the Premier League. While the aforementioned phoenix club AFC Wimbledon have risen up said pyramid to establish themselves in League One and find a home back at Plough Lane their bitter rivals MK Dons have enjoyed just one season back in the second tier and have struggled to create the expected following to justify the decision making of their previous owners. At the heart of this was the distinct lack of credibility the new club had amongst football fans even with the likes of Heald providing some continuity from the original Wimbledon side. What’s left is a cautionary tale of what chasing a quick buck can result in although one that has perhaps escaped the notice of several shareholders and those in charge of the game on a national and global level.