Massive Newcastle United donation smashes through AFC Wimbledon JustGiving appeal total | OneFootball

AFC Wimbledon and Newcastle United will meet at St James’ Park in seven days time.

However, this is already building into a very special story.

So often in adversity and tough times, help comes from the most unexpected places.

As you will all know by now the heavens opening on Sunday night and their Plough Lane pitch and stadium flooded, with tonight’s scheduled match against Newcastle United the first casualty, That though just one of so many issues for AFC Wimbledon fans to face. As a fan-owned club, this is all even more serious for the League Two outfit.

At 8am this morning, we highlighted that AFC Wimbledon fans had set up a JustGiving fundraiser to help their club deal with the devastating floods that had caused so much damage.

We said that here at The Mag we had made a small nominal donation on behalf of all the Newcastle United fans who visit the site. We invited any NUFC who wanted to, to join us by making a personal donation HERE.

The fundraising appeal had started with the aim of raising £10,000, but by 8am on Tuesday morning, they had raised an impressive £27,517 from 625 donations towards their new £50,000 target.

‘I’m raising money to help AFC Wimbledon get games on following damage to the stadium and pitch due to the extensive flooding over the course of 22-23rd September, which left the club having to call off games and destroyed the pitch.

The money raised will go towards helping the club deal with any costs associated with the floods and could range from repairs to pump hire to rental of an alternative venue – that will be decided by the Club.

We have been in touch with the Club and been assured that any help would be appreciated.

As you may know, AFC Wimbledon is a fan-owned club and the ability to play games in front of crowds is crucial to its existence…’

Well, not blowing our own Mag trumpet but hopefully we helped get the AFC Wimbledon fundraiser a few extra quid/donations, as well as our own modest ££ contribution.

AFC Wimbledon fan and the main man behind the fundraiser, Graham Stacey, giving this update earlier:

‘Well this is bonkers, isn’t it. We started with an initial target of £10k, thinking that might be ambitious. But then I guess we’d forgotten how Wimbledon fans answer the call -every-single-time. So we upped it to £25k. And Sky News called us. Then the papers and radio got in touch. And fans around the UK joined in. And players started out donating each other. And suddenly we’re flying past £20k. So we’ve upped target one last time, to a round £50k. Together, maybe we really can get games back on at Plough Lane sooner rather than later…’

In less than five hours, things have rapidly moved on and just before 1pm on Tuesday, the total is now standing at £52,120 from 922 ‘supporters’ of the appeal. So maybe Graham might have to ‘up’ this target ‘one last time’ again!

One particular contribution has made a bit of a stir…

This is ahead of course the significant money AFC Wimbledon will hopefully generate from their share of the St James’ Park proceeds next Tuesday night, via a fingers crossed full house at SJP. Another reminder, go HERE