The Strong Arm of the Law at Wimbledon

Micky (Turka) Taylor, author and non-League football pundit

When people talk about non-League football there is always one club that comes to the forefront for me and for many reasons as I will explain.

That club is Wimbledon FC, nicknamed `The Dons` or the `Wombles`, whichever you prefer.

This was the `real` Wimbledon, the club that started it all and when I first saw them, I remember thinking that if I made it as a footballer, I would love to play for them as their winger.

They won so many trophies in the Isthmian League, but it was the Southern League where they turned professional and really made their mark.

This was the platform to go on and enter the Football League, playing at that lovely old ground, Plough Lane.

So now onto how I was involved in their early exploits and my uncle Roy Law, who was one of my dad’s best mates.

In those days, out of respect, any close male friend of my dad’s was called uncle and I can tell you that with a lot of footballers and a certain boxer he knew, I had quite a lot of uncles!

God knows what mum would have thought if he had had a female friend and I called her auntie!

Onto Roy Law and what a player he was. He must be among the all-time greats in non-League football, having made over 640 appearances for Wimbledon - a record that still stands today.

He was the captain and played for England’s amateur team and also Great Britain.

Wimbledon changed from the Isthmian League to the Southern League in 1964/65 and were promoted to the Premier Division after finishing second with Hereford United being the champions.

Some say that they turned professional but that really was not the case as players still had to work.

Roy was a plumber by trade so it really was no different from today’s players in the Southern and Isthmian League, getting a weekly wage that most certainly would not pay all the bills.

I think the correct wording was they ceased to be a team that was classed as `amateur`, although we all know the brown envelopes were flying about like they were for myself when I played for Bromley.

Roy Law was also very much a Sunday player who would turn out quite regularly for his beloved Heath United in the same side as my dad, and on a Sunday morning you would see a crowd of at least 3-400 people around the pitch to watch them play.

They were that good, winning almost every trophy there was and at the time were one of the best Sunday teams in the country.

I watched Roy play when dad took me over to Plough Lane and I used to meet some of the team after the games I went to.

Little did I know what was to happen in the future that would bring me close to another player at Wimbledon but more of that later.

Roy Law became a legend at Wimbledon until he left the club in 1972 after spending 13 years as their captain, but I still saw quite a lot of him as he used to visit dad from time to time.

Dad passed away many years back now, but Roy was there to pay his respects.

Sadly, Roy passed away in October 2014, leaving behind a truly great memory of his time at Wimbledon and the fans who thought the world of him.

I did say that Wimbledon played a big part in my football career and none more so than a certain Eddie Reynolds, who was one of the most lethal headers of a ball I have ever seen grace a football pitch.

He holds a record that I don’t think will ever be broken by scoring four goals in a game at Wembley, astonishingly all with his head.

It was the FA Amateur Cup final in which Wimbledon beat Sutton United 4-2.

I met Eddie a couple of times and he was like a giant and had broad shoulders to go with it.

He too was another international in the Wimbledon side playing for Northern Ireland at amateur level.

I just kept thinking to myself someone has to mark him every game and I’m glad it was not me as he was like a bulldozer in the 18-yard box and nothing got in his way in his attempts to put the ball in the net.

Sadly though, Eddie passed away in 1993, aged 58.

The final player I want to talk about is Les Brown, who joined Wimbledon in 1961 from Dulwich Hamlet.

He was also an England and Great Britain international and during his time at The Dons he scored over 80 goals.

This was the man who had the most influence on me during my playing career, although playing under Micky Acland at Bromley in the late 1960s in the Isthmian League was a wake-up call.

For me as a player, however, they didn’t come any better than Les Brown my team-mate, manager and coach at Whyteleafe in the tough Surrey Senior League back in 1969 when, on my 21st birthday after leaving Bromley, I made my debut against Frimley Green and got the winner.

Les wanted me to play like an old-fashioned winger, staying out wide and getting quality crosses into the box for him to meet with his head or any part of his body come to that.

He was lethal at finding the net. He used to just say to me before a game ‘Micky you get the ball in those areas, and I will do the rest, otherwise I will drop you from the side. That is a promise’. And he meant it!

He taught me the beginnings of how to manage at senior level with his style of how to get the best out of players.

Without blowing my own trumpet, I could cross a ball better than most, and if you read my autobiography, you will know how I got the name `Turka’.

To think that I had seen him play a few times and now I was in the same team was just awesome for me and some of the other players as well.

Okay, we won the league under his management and also the East Surrey Charity Cup, but it was Les Brown who was the man that players and supporters loved and sometimes when us older players have a reunion, Les is always a big part of the memories shared.

Les passed away in January this year (2021), aged 84.

We all would have loved to have paid our respects but with covid that was not possible, but I can say hand on heart thank you Les for the non-League football pleasure you gave us.

In the photo with this article Roy Law is in the back row centre, Les Brown is front row left-hand side and how could you miss Eddie Reynolds, front row centre.

God bless them all.

(Micky Taylor`s excellent book `Non-League Football - A Roller Coaster Ride To Beat Any` is available to buy from Amazon priced £12.99 (Kindle version £3.99. All proceeds to Cancer Research)