From the BT Sport preview of the game....
Mike Calvin: Wimbledon identify with Coventry's solidarity
BT Sport columnist says live FA Cup match represents the struggle for the national game’s soul.
By Mike Calvin
Sports writer
Last updated: 08 November 2013, 12:31 GMT
Harry Pell (L) and Jack Midson (R) of AFC Wimbledon celebrate the win that kept them in the Football League
This is more than a football match. It is a fable.
Friday night’s televised FA Cup tie between two former winners, AFC Wimbledon and Coventry City, represents the struggle for the national game’s soul.
AFC command the moral high ground. They enshrine the merits of the supporter-owned club, built from the wreckage of betrayal and abandonment.
Coventry, through no fault of their own, are the bad guys. They are an investment vehicle for a Mayfair hedge fund, whose operating principles have been shamefully excused by the Football League.
An away tie comes as a blessed relief to Coventry, whose decline since winning Wembley in 1987 has been steep and sobering.
At least their long-suffering fans will be able to attend with a clear conscience.
Their boycott of “home” matches, staged in a vacuum of indifference at Northampton Town, has been one of the storylines of the season. It is self-sacrifice in a noble cause.
Coventry’s resilience on the pitch, under the admirable management of Stephen Pressley, has been matched off it.
They are on course to overcome a 10-point penalty, and reach the League One play offs, and the supporters have mounted a consistently effective protest campaign against owners SISU.
Wimbledon fans will identify with such solidarity. They have lived through the lie of supposedly temporary relocation.
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AFC are a success, regardless of whether they reach the second round"
The club left Plough Lane, their spiritual home, and squatted at Selhurst Park before being infamously moved, lock stock and smoking barrel, to Milton Keynes.
Last December’s FA Cup tie between AFC, the Phoenix club directly descended from the Crazy Gang, and MK Dons, their bad-blood brother, merely heightened the tensions between the two.
Football needs to drive out the corporate gargoyles, but that is a more realistic proposition lower down the pyramid.
The best example of the fan-run club remains Portsmouth, whose results in League Two have failed to match the excitement generated by their spiritual rebirth.
The Pompey model is the way forward – a club run by the fans, for the fans. The strength of the link between players, staff and supporters is no coincidence.
They have found common cause.
AFC Wimbledon are a success story, regardless of whether they reach the second round. Coventry City will still be victims of circumstance, whatever the result.
The neutral will wish both well.
Coverage of AFC Wimbledon v Coventry starts at 7pm on BT Sport 1 on Friday November 8.