WHEN the Premiership took a break last weekend, Wimbledon FC also sat on the soccer sidelines . . . and went to Newmarket races.
'It was a typical Wimbledon team-building exercise,' Dons' midfielder Robbie Earle told Premier Soccer this week.
'We didn't win much because Vinny Jones was in charge of the betting and he's not exactly the world's best tipster. But it was a great couple of days away in terms of team spirit and keeping everyone together. This is a big part of Wimbledon Football Club.' Indeed it is, as the Premiership has discovered this season. After a dreadful start, losing against Manchester United, Newcastle United and Leeds United without scoring a goal, the critics were already writing them off.
But Earle and Co. knew better - and silenced the anti-Wimbledon factions once again by winning their next five games to stand in fifth place.
'We didn't play badly in those first three matches and thought we were worth at least a couple of points. We never lost our confidence and now we're on a bit of a roll.
'Our opponents this Saturday, Sheffield Wednesday, were flying at the start of the season and now they're struggling, so the roles are reversed.' Earle, from Newcastle in Staffordshire, learned his trade as a professional footballer in the not-so-glamorous surroundings of Port Vale, for whom he played from 1981 to 1991. He moved to Wimbledon for the 1991-92 campaign and is now in his sixth season with the Dons.
With all this money flying around in the Premiership, how does such a modest club like Wimbledon survive? 'Obviously we haven't got the finances to sign people like Ravanelli and Vialli so the boss [Joe Kinnear] looks for people who can come in and do a job,' says Earle, 31.