Fans flock to Wimbledon's re-birth

Football fever came to the Royal London Borough of Kingston-on-Thames last night amid scenes to warm the coldest heart, as AFC Wimbledon, the club formed by disenchanted supporters of the Milton Keynes-bound Wimbledon, drew so many people to their inaugural home game in the Seagrave Haulage Combined Counties League that the kick-off had to be put back by half an hour.

A capacity crowd of 4,215 eventually crammed into Kingsmeadow Stadium, which they share with Kingstonian, compared to 2,476 spectators for the now-despised Wimbledon's opening First Division game against Gillingham, who had provided all but 668 of them.

This time, there were only a handful of travelling fans following the visitors, Chipstead, who finished third in the CCL last season but are probably better known as the hosts for the notorious television series Footballers' Wives. Determined to play the role of party-poopers in denying the home side a second successive victory, they took the lead early in a vigorous contest before a splendidly-struck equaliser from Kevin Cooper, who had scored the Dons' historic first goal at Sandhurst Town on Saturday.

AFC Wimbledon already has 1,200 season-ticket holders, and – almost absurdly for this level of football – supporters not in possession of one needed to arrive early to ensure they got in to the ground. A full 90 minutes before kick-off, therefore, commuters alighting at Norbiton station found themselves outnumbered by fans in yellow T-shirts proclaiming confidently: "I was there". How they actually would get 'there' for the first time, some were not entirely certain. "I dunno the way, but I'm following the crowd," one chuntered into his mobile. And a crowd there was even at that early stage, with queues stretching 100 yards into the Kingston Road.

"It's a miracle," said a proud Ivor Heller, the commercial director, gazing out from the main stand. "Twelve weeks ago we didn't have a club. Now we've got queues down the road and people coming from all over, desperate to get to the game."

Among them, and receiving a rousing reception, were former Wimbledon players Jason Euell, Marcus Gayle, Neal Ardley and Roger Joseph, plus Terry Burton, the popular manager dismissed towards the end of last season after suggesting that the club should be looking for a new stadium locally rather than 70 miles away. The new Dons are still doing just that, hoping that there will soon be enough money in the bank to make Safeway, which now owns the derelict Plough Lane site, consider an offer for it.

In the meantime, Kingstonian are in administration and hugely grateful for the rent. So parlous is the Ryman League club's financial position that they are unable to play any games until a Company Voluntary Arrangement is agreed by the League and the Football Association. What they would not have given for crowds the size of last night's.

A nice touch, among many, was that the mascot was 10-month old Elliott Bolton, whose father Mark had performed the same function for Wimbledon in their final match as a non-League club, 25 years ago.

In a quarter of a century, of course, the Dons came a long way – reaching the top six of the Premiership and winning the FA Cup – before deciding to move a long way.

Desperate as New Wimbledon are to progress as rapidly through the leagues as their former heroes, the result did not seem to matter too much one way or another last night. The most important message had already been conveyed by the public address announcer – a Kiss FM disc jockey: "Let it be known," he boomed, "that football belongs to the fans".