"Barking mad, but utterly special": Lawrie Sanchez, John Scales and Wimbledon fans remember Plough Lane's pitch-black toilets and overly-friendly wombles

An artist's impression of what the new 20,000-seater stadium might look like

The council chamber is expected to be packed to the rafters with fans desperate to see Wimbledon return to Plough Lane, which they called home for nearly 80 years, and still remember fondly.

From December 2: AFC Wimbledon: Is Dons' exile over at last?

From today: "Womble shaped butterflies" Your thoughts ahead of tonight's D-Day for the Dons

From today: AFC Wimbledon stadium will be 'the end of greyhound racing', but the sport will fight Plough Lane plans

Follow our live blog: #DDayforDons All the news on the AFC Wimbledon Plough Lane decision

In anticipation of tonight’s meeting, we spoke to Wimbledon legends, fans, historians and commentators about their memories of the former stadium.

FA Cup winner Lawrie Sanchez remembers Plough Lane as the last of its kind, and outdated – but loved it all the same.

Mr Sanchez famously scored the only goal in the 1988 FA Cup Final as Wimbledon shocked Liverpool at Wembley, and warmly remembers the Plough Lane reception afterwards.

He said: “The stands were wooden and decrepit, and it didn’t have covers over the stand, but I loved playing there.

“The pitch was one of the best playing surfaces around.

“It was a throwback to the 50s and 60s when Wimbledon was one of the best non-league teams in the country. It was probably the last non-league-style ground in the old First Division.

“Away teams wouldn’t be up for it, and so we knew it was a place we could beat anybody, and we did.

“It added to the whole ethos of the small team against the world.

“After the FA Cup Final they put up a marquee on the pitch – they didn’t tell us about this – and we entered via the tunnel, and we had a celebration with our families and friends.

“That was probably my favourite, personal memory from Plough Lane.”

John Scales spent seven seasons at Wimbledon and was with the club through the Crazy Gang years and during the transition from Plough Lane to Selhurst Park.

He made 240 appearances for the club - more than he picked up at Liverpool, Tottenham, Bristol Rovers and Ipswich Town combined.

He was part of the most famous FA Cup upset of all time - beating Liverpool in the final at the end of the 1987/88 season.

Ex-Wimbledon player John Scales backed the campaign to Bring The Dons Home

Mr Scales described the original Plough Lane ground as from a bygone era, but ultimately a very special place.

He said: "The club gave me so much - they made me the player I was - and it was such a special time place to be a Wimbledon player.

"Plough Lane was a stadium from a bygone era in English football.

"It was small changing rooms, narrow tunnels, and spending the night in the pub with the fans after matches. It was great.

"It’s a very special place. I always get memories flooding back when I drive past.

"It really was a one-off - the epicentre of the way football used to be."

Wimbledon FC Directors and Executive Lounge at Plough Lane (David Forsyth)

Niall Couper quite literally wrote the book on AFC Wimbledon - This is Our Time: The AFC Wimbledon Story, a history of the club’s rise from the ashes of Wimbledon FC to their first season in the Football League.

He can trace much of his life with the club - from being a mascot at Plough Lane in his childhood, through selling programmes during his teenage years, to watching his daughter run out as a mascot at Kingsmeadow.

He said: "I absolutely love Plough Lane. I kind of grew up there.

"I was a mascot there in 1983 with my brother. We lost against Hull City 2-1 - our only home defeat of the season.

"The crowd would probably have been tiny, but it seemed huge for me at the time.

"I remember sweaty socks being thrown around a changing room.

"I remember Dave Bassett shouting away at the players from the middle.

"It was a magical experience.

"And last year my daughter, Amelia, was a mascot at Kingsmeadow.

"But now, walking past the place where I was a mascot and everything is demolished, it’s hard for me."

Coming out of the tunnel onto the old Plough Lane pitch (David Forsyth)

Although details are a little hazy, Mr Couper still remembers his first game at Plough Lane - a draw with Scunthorpe United in the 1982/83 season.

He said: "I remember just going with wide, open eyes to the whole experience.

"I went with my grandparents and my brother.

"I remember just taking it all in, and falling in love with the club right away."

Mr Couper’s memories of Plough Lane are not all rose-tinted though - he vividly recalls the old stadium’s pitch-black toilets.

He said: "The toilets were probably the worst thing ever.

"They were actually pitch-black spaces where people probably didn’t know where anything was going.

"I loved the atmosphere: the smell of Bovril, the floodlights in the shape of a W, people smoking pipes during the game.

"As we went up through the Leagues what made it so special was that we were the down ‘n’ outs. "They all had massive stadiums and we had Plough Lane."

The old Plough Lane pitch in pristine condition (David Forsyth)

Rob Cornell, interviewer and commentator at Radio WDON, believes Plough Lane was an intrinsic part of a remarkable story in which Wimbledon rose through the leagues and shocked the footballing world by upsetting Liverpool in the 1987/88 FA Cup Final.

He said: "I first went in October 1980 - we beat Hartlepool 5-0 and I was hooked immediately. I was only eight at the time.

"I made my friends there. Initially friends of family got me to go along on a Saturday, instead of long weekends at home.

"Plough Lane may well have been a non-league ground and not too pretty to look at for an outsider, but it was special to me growing up - especially at a time when Wimbledon FC made it all the way to the top flight and won the FA Cup in 1988 - it was all part of a remarkable story.

"It must have been a bit of a departure from the Old Traffords, Anfields, and Highburys at the time for some players."

Plough Lane from the skies (David Forsyth)

Geoff Hawley, also a commentator at Radio WDON, says some of his earliest memories of Plough Lane were actually rather traumatic.

But nevertheless, precariously watching matches from the top of the dugout and cowering from overfriendly Wombles had him hooked on the club.

He said: "The early days are very light on detail really. I was probably less than two years old at the time and used to sit on top of the dugouts.

"I'd probably get chucked out for that these days, if they could take my slight increase in mass over the intervening 40 years.

"One time, a crepe paper-furred Womble mascot came over and I shied away at the imposing 6ft of TV animation in front of me.

"They turned to my father and asked, ‘Is she afraid?’ I pray I never find them."

Wimbledon's Womble at a 1975 FA Cup tie with Leeds United 

For Mr Hawley, the less attractive elements of Plough Lane - the abyssal blackness of the West Bank toilets, for example - were all part of the ground’s charm.

He said: "Plough Lane wasn't all that of a ground but it was our home and it always felt really like home.

"Under floodlights, the atmosphere could be electrifying - a bit less so when you're losing 1-0 to Carlisle at half time in the grey drizzle with a less than packed crowd, but it always was home and just felt right.

"The less said about the West Bank toilets, the better. Only a dire emergency warranted a visit to their all-enveloping blackness inside."

He fondly recalls electrifying evenings under the floodlights and evenings that reinforced the special community feel of the club.

He said: "February 1987 and the visit of Everton and the TV cameras was one of the atmospheres that made Plough Lane special.

"You could feel the air thickening with excitement.

"Some of the gloss rubbed off when Everton took the lead but then the game turned and it felt like riding the waves off O'ahu, it was such a day.

"Alan Cork's testimonial in May 1988 seemed surreal.

"We'd just won the FA Cup and it was an evening that reinforced two things: We really had won the Cup and this club is barking mad, but utterly special."

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