Xavier Wiggins reports on Wimbledon's lack of action as they search for a new home

As followers of a team that have spent eleven consecutive years in the top flight, won the FA Cup and established themselves as formidable opponents, Wimbledon fans ought be envied by many other supporters. Closer examination, however reveals a club exiled from its own borough for the past seven seasons whose fans, whilst growing in number (a 115% increase since moving from Plough Lane) sit in a ground painted in the landlord’s colours, are stewarded by Palace fans and buy their merchandise in a shop where Wimbledon goods look like they have been put out by mistake. They even sup their pre-match beers in a bar called ‘Crystals’.

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Here's hoping that an Eastern European team can defy UEFA's unfair structuring by winning the Champions League or UEFA Cup

You may know a Stranraer fan in Devon. You might even be the secretary of the Croydon branch of the Arbroath supporters’ club. All over England there are small groups of mostly middle-aged men who once in a while pile into a minivan and drive several hundred miles to watch a Scottish Third Division match.

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Saturday 3 Man Utd stumble, drawing 2-2 at Leicester after being two down. "It was very hot out there. I used to be a campaigner for Summer football but bugger that," says Alex, sweating off a stone on the touchline. Utd's lead over Liverpool is reduced to three points after the latter bumble past Spurs 2-1, the quality of the game gauged by Neil Ruddock winning Man of the Match. Arsenal's chances of landing the second Champions League place vanish after a 1-0 home defeat by Newcastle who could still finish second themselves (not been a vintage season, really, has it?). At the bottom Forest and their assorted managers are relegated following a 1-1 draw with Wimbledon and Coventry look doomed after a 2-1 home defeat by Derby. Middlesbrough blow a two-goal lead against Villa but still nick the points with an injury time penalty while Southampton and Sunderland edge nearer to safety after home wins over Blackburn and Everton who are themselves still in danger of the drop (Jack Walker and Peter Johnson will be after their money back soon). Brighton fans invade a pitch again, only this time in celebration of getting the draw they need to stay in the League, at the expense of Hereford, who move down into the Conference to be replaced by Macclesfield.

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Dear WSC
Surely the insouciant arrogance with which David Elleray slithers to cover up his mistakes cannot be unconnected with his day job? Who remembers a school teacher who ever admitted to getting something wrong?  Of course, as a servant of the privileged classes, Elleray performs his role with a polished charm, his eyes glinting like a demented pterodactyl. But beyond this saurian resemblance, I can’t be the only person to notice that the penalty he gave against Sean Dyche, for obstruction outside the area, was a carbon copy of the dreadful decision he gave against Frank Sinclair when he came shoulder to shoulder outside the box with the dying swan of the Ukrainian ballet, Andrei Kanchelskis, in the 1994 Cup Final.  It’s time this man was confined to the playing fields of Harrow.
Martin Humphrey, London SW4

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England's next opponents, South Africa, have problems that go further than the football pitch, says  John Perlman

By the time Benedict McCarthy set off for the African under-20 championships in Morocco last month, he had just seven South African Premier league games under his belt. By the end of the tournament in which his five goals had taken South Africa to the final – they lost 1-0 to the hosts – the young striker from Cape Town’s “coloured” townships was having to get his brain round a bewildering array of choices: Ajax? Feyenoord? Milan?

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