³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ

Unfortuatly he will always be remembered for one thing. THAT Beckham goal :(

I would pay very good money for the pictured Wimbledon 'keeper top!

Good blog Paul! As a Leeds fan its good to see him still going - I have to admit I agreed with Dennis Wise's decision to get rid of him at the time, he seemed like he was past his best but he's managed to extend his career at a good club under a good manager, but as said above the stand out memory of him will unfortunately always be looking over his head helplessly as Beckham scored that infamous goal.

I didn't realise he and Dennis Wise had had a fall out weren't they team mates at Wimbledon? Never cared much for Dennis Wise to be honest.

Paul, good to see a well-regarded former Wimbledon player, and Sutton boy, still enjoying his football (I speak as a long-time Wimbledon fan and resident of Sutton). There are a couple of problems with the blog, though:

1) you describe Wimbledon as 'now defunct'. This is something of an insult to the Wimbledon supporters whose time, energy, commitment (and money) kept the club alive in May 2002 and under whose stewardship it has risen from the Combined Counties League to the top of the Conference since then (like most Dons fans of my, er, vintage, I do not regard AFC Wimbledon as a new club but as a continuation of the old club under a new name; if I'm in a conciliatory mood I might concede that the club was reformed in 2002 but this is as far as I'm prepared to go). The club's community scheme and youth teams are thriving and there were three Wimbledon players in the England C team which beat Estonia in Tallinn last week. Hardly defunct, surely?

2) you (implicitly) compare Wimbledon's 'rough-and-ready, physical and uncompromising style' unfavourably to the 'passing and movement...craft and subtlety' of Sean O'Driscoll's Doncaster Rovers. It's a pity that you've used your blog to perpetuate the clichéd view of Wimbledon's style rather that present a more nuanced picture. Bear in mind that during Wimbledon's tenure as a League club between 1977 and 2002, 14 continuous seasons were spent in the top flight. Remember that this was achieved despite a small supporter base (there were established League clubs, Fulham & Chelsea, just a few stops along the District Line from Wimbledon so attracting new fans in our natural catchment area was always going to be difficult) and despite spending 11 seasons as tenants at Selhurst Park (after our owner sold Plough Lane to a supermarket; compare this to Doncaster, who play in a newly-built stadium, financed by their patron). Our gravity-defying top-flight existence was maintained by unearthing discarded or ignored gems in the lower divisions (or, after Terry Burton's overhaul of the academy, by developing its own players) polishing them up and selling them on at a profit. Examples: Dave Beasant, Andy Thorn, Warren Barton & Carl Cort (sold to Newcastle), Nigel Winterburn (Arsenal), John Scales (Liverpool), Dennis Wise (Chelsea), Keith Curle & Terry Phelan (Manchester City) Chris Perry and Neil Sullivan himself (Tottenham). For all Doncaster's supposed technical & aesthetic superiority, they haven't yet reached the top-flight and haven't yet developed players of the quality of those mentioned above.

I hope I don't come across as chip-shouldered and I'm not criticising Doncaster Rovers (I watched Donny in a Conference game at Sutton United in 2000 so their progress in the last decade is something I hope Wimbledon can emulate in the near future) but your blog gives you the opportunity to dig a little deeper and offer readers insights they can't get elsewhere in the media and I think you slightly wasted the chance here.

Good article Paul, however, John Ryan made his money with Transform medical Group before selling it and starting his new MYA company.

Still happy to see Sullivan playing and has another year or two left yet.

Thanks for the quick reply, Paul. Should have prefaced my comments by saying I enjoy your blogs (as I - mostly - enjoyed this one). If I seem a bit thin-skinned, try supporting a team that has its hard-won League place appropriated and awarded to a franchise from a post-war New Town, then being told by the people making that decision that it is 'not in the wider interests of football' for supporters to keep their club alive. Any chance of you making it down to Kingsmeadow and publishing a blog on our progress (not just focussing on the first team but also the youth set-up and community schemes)? Or getting in touch with Raj Parker & Steve Stride and asking whether they still think AFC Wimbledon is 'not in the wider interests of football'?

It wasn't just the Beckham goal, I remember Tony Yeboah scoring a cracker against him. I also thought Paolo Di Canio's scissor kick volley was against him too.

Clearly it took something special to beat him!

I always rated Sullivan, a solid keeper and as a Scotland fan I felt safer with him in goal over Jim Leighton or Rab Useless Douglas.

Good luck to him. This blog helps him come over as the consumate professional I always felt he came across as.

Hughton...

Agreed always came across as a pro - and was a popular figure at Leeds - no question he'd win out in a popularity contest over Dennis Wise!!! Yeboah's was another fantastic strike.

Wednesdayfan1, Wise critisized Sullivan's performances for Leeds and said he was no longer fit enough, which as I mentioned before anybody that saw him at that stage would have to say it did look that way but hes kept going and looked as good as ever when we played Donny recently.

DT00271 - I've a massive amount of respect for what AFC Wimbledon have done, it wasn't so long ago that it looked like Leeds were going to be faced with a similar task (albeit under different circumstances us having created our own mess)

I think people forget that for quite a few seasons, Neil was the best goalkeeper in the Premiership (back by opta stats) and after the typical Wimbledon players getting rejected by England had to look elsewhere to Scotland. I'd like to think if only he was 6, 7 years younger, he would have well represented England a number of times.

Thanks for giving our club a bit of recognition. I know that we are perennial favourites for relegation and are still seen as lower league upstarts by many at this level. As we've said for years, underestimate us at your peril. Neil Sullivan is a credit to his profession and living proof that Dennis Wise wouldn't know a decent player if he kicked him up in the air. Leeds loss, our gain. It can be difficult following Donny sometimes from half way round the world, so many thanks for your article which made great reading and reminds all us long suffering fans that we really are a Championship side and the nightmares of games against Leek Town and Stalybridge are distant memories. Premier League? Who knows. I think there's a few more surprises to come from our pub side yet.
Keep up the great blogs, Rovers till I die.

Just because there haven't been nearly enough of the chippy, pedantic responses that ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ blogs usually elicit, I'd like to point out that Justin Fashanu never played for Wimbledon and Vinny Jones spells his first name with 'ie' rather than 'y'. This country, etc..

As a bournemouth fan I can't complain right now with our current league position and Eddie Howe, but all of us remember the O'Driscoll years with fondness, the passing and movement was beautiful at times. I'm glad to see he's carried on and I expect he'll get a top job in the future if bbc blogs keep on enough. Of course in league 1 it often came up against some big defensive lumps and long meaningless periods of passing often drove fans to madness. Still brought us back down to earth when we started long balls under Kevin Bond! (w**ker)

I think I once played in the opposite goal to Sullivan in 1987. Swindon Town Youths versus Wimbledon Youths. Dave Kemp was his manager. I too turned 40 this year and I still wish I'd had a career as a pro. Well played Sully.

Happnstance.
If you read Paul Fletcher's Blog properly at no point does he mention Justin Fashanu or spell Vinnie with a 'Y'.
I remember Neil's time with the Scotland Squad quite fondly.He never really let the Scotland Team down when called upon.

@Spiker:

It definatley did mention Vinny and Justin, but while the comments were closed. It's since been edited.

Good article about a great guy. I met Neil Sullivan after he'd played for Spurs at Old Trafford around 10 years ago & he'd spent the afternoon getting politely asked by the Stretford End 'do you know where Scotland is?'. He admitted that only a few weeks before he'd actually got lost on his way to Hampden, and couldn't understand any Glaswegian accents when asking for directions!

From what I hear (from his family :D) Sully would love to return back South at some time. Would be great to see him don a Wimbledon shirt again!

Legend through and through. Wimbledon always had decent Keepers, Guy, Beasant, Segers and Sully. Great to see him still plying his trade.

(Learnt to kick straight yet Sully? ;) )

I was at Selhurst Park when Yeboah scored 'wondergoal #2' (wondergoal #1 being the one against Liverpool at Elland Rd), also amazing for Carlton Palmer curling one in from 30 yards too, in a memorable 4-2 victory for Leeds.

Thanks for that memory. Never had anything but respect for Sullivan, both as a former player and an opponent.

Some people are so touchy it's quite funny reading these comments.

Will be interesting to see if Rovers get to play Liverpool next season...

Says the Liverpool fan from Donny.

Nice to see Sully's still playing and at a club doing well, it looks like I'm not the only Don checking in on a blog about one of our former heroes...

I won't bang the drum about the style of football etc, very amused by Womble-of-Arabia's comment about kicking straight, maybe our alleged "route-one" football would've been more effective if he had ;-)

Good blog. Good luck to Doncaster, hope you make it up and Sully has a chance to bow out at the top of the game where he deinitely belongs as a keeper...

Spiker
I think the likely reason you can't see the errors I cited is because they had been changed by the time you responded to my initial post. Alert moderators tend to pick up editorial oversights when flagged up by readers.

I meant to say on my previous post that I enjoyed reading the blog, Paul - and it's remarkable how Neil Sullivan doesn't appear to age.

I thought that another disappointment for him would've been the Leeds play-off defeat to my club, Watford, especially as our second goal is credited as an own goal by him, although that was a bit unfair as it came off the post and hit him on the back. A decent pro, and unlike a certain keeper of a similar age (DJ), keeps out of the limelight and gets on with his job.

Sullivan was a top keeper and always had time for the fans - always used to give us a wave and clap on away trips. Nothing he could do about the Beckham goal or the Yeboah and Carlton Palmer rockets - I was sitting right in line.

Should have been picked for England but I don't think Glenn Hoddle liked Wimbledon too much.

Nice to see him getting plaudits from all sides.

I'm in agreement with DT00271 here. Paul please do an article on a lower or non-league club there's quite a few interesting stories out there; AFC Wimbledon, Stevenage (formerly Stevenage Borough) and what ever happened to the newly reformed Chester FC?

Sully was a team mate of Denis Wise, Wise never made it as a manager, as you can see by his judgement on players, he was was poor, the simple fact that he let Sully go and is still playing proves my point, whats Wise doing now ?

Sully is probably our most valuable asset apart from Sean O'Driscoll - by my reckoning every season he's been with us he's been worth at very least about 15 points. For our first two seasons in the Championship, that's been the difference between relegation and the mid-table obscurity we've come to enjoy.

Only this weekend he again managed to be the difference between victory and defeat, helped partly by some lacklustre Millwall finishing, but his reactions are as keen as ever and his handling is still top notch.

Every season now seems to start with a worry about what will happen if he starts losing it, or gets injured, but every season he allays all the fears and comes back better than ever. I don't want to tempt fate by predicting how much longer he can go on for but at the Keepmoat we'll all be enjoying it for however long it turns out to be!