ON THIS DAY

AFC Wimbledon were formed in June 2002 by fans of Wimbledon FC after that club had decided to up-sticks and move to Milton Keynes to (eventually) become MK Dons. AFC started life in the Combined Counties League which was in the ninth tier of English football but by 2016/17 both clubs were together in League 1. On Sunday October 9th - when AFC won at Oxford and MKD lost at home to Port Vale - for the first time the phoenix club were above the original club in the League table. AFC occupied 10th spot in League 1, one point and two places higher than MKD.

Probably the most bizarre abandoned international was a Scotland World Cup qualifier. They were due to play Estonia in an evening kick off in Tallinn but after Scotland objected to the temporary floodlights as not being up to standard FIFA brought forward the match to an afternoon ko. Estonia were not too chuffed at that and when Scotland kicked off at the appointed time they were the only side on the pitch! To the chants from the 1000 or so present 'O ne team in Tallinn, there's only one team in Tallinn ' the referee abandoned the game after just three seconds. The match was ordered to be replayed at a neutral venue (Monaco).

Aston Villa's attempt to fill what would have been a blank international weekend for the club with a prestige friendly back-fired, just a bit! The 'friendly' was against Scottish champs Rangers. Scots fans - many the worse for drink - descended on Birmingham causing problems in the city centre even before arriving at Villa Park. At the ground missiles were thrown onto the pitch, there were pitch invasions and battles with the police which left over a hundred spectators injured, including stabbings, and a similar number arrested. With Villa leading 2-0 the match was abandoned in the 53rd minute - and Rangers found it just a tad more difficult to play friendlies south of the border!

Gillingham suffered a nightmare journey to Barrow for a Fourth Division match. They arrived so late that the match had to be abandoned when Barrow were winning 7-0. A broken-down bus, a missed train, a chartered plane and a car dash didn't prove good enough to get the match finished before it got too dark (no floodlights at Barrow in those days).