Years ago people would break their necks to get a tackle in now if he goes

Years ago people would break their necks to get a tackle in, now, if he goes down, it is a sending-off offence."Change was not made with reluctance. A devoted, but jargon-free coach with a wall full of videos at home, Kinnear would not have been happy teaching a team to kick and chase for long.Wimbledon's image has changed off the pitch too. When he goes, people will perceive it as the final break."It was a conscious decision to change the style, but to do so without losing what we had You get criticised whichever way you do it Journalists come to me and they say: `You have gone soft You don't kick people anymore and hit it long. Don't you think you had better get back to the old Wimbledon way and frighten the life out of people?'"But football has changed, it has moved on.

We have all-seater stadiums, new rules have come in and players get booked willy-nilly. Everything is staked on forward play to make the game more attractive The thing you must have now as a defender is pace The old sliding tackle I used to make is gone. The reputation lingers, but they are no longer an ugly, bruising side. Fash the Bash took his elbows to Aston Villa, and the Jones boy, having been dropped, is contemplating a move."He is the last of the dinosaurs, the old Crazy Gang," Kinnear said "He has been monumental to this club, phenomenal And we have been good for him. In that match, the only bookings were for Newcastle and Wimbledon attacked down the flanks rather than with the long punt down the middle.The change illustrated Wimbledon's development under Kinnear. They took on Newcastle with four centre-forwards, and repeated the trick away to Leeds.

"Sometimes you fear the worst when you look at the sides, but we gave it a blast - it seemed to work in our favour," said Kinnear.In both games they got the better of the draw and the 3-3 tie with Newcastle was arguably the game of the season so far.Not so long ago, Wimbledon would have sought to beat a team like Newcastle by intimidating them physically, the league points being paid for with disciplinary ones. They began the Christmas programme without a win in 16 starts."We should have won several of them," said Kinnear. "We are playing better and we are getting fitter," he adds, reeling off half-a-dozen returning serious injury victims. Significantly, they include the bulk of the back four.Wimbledon, more than most clubs, cannot afford an injury crisis.

They have had to use 27 players this season, stretching their thin resources too far The response has, however, been typical. He is one of the favourites to follow Jack Charlton as manager of the Republic of Ireland.All this speculation has been accompanied by a damaging run of form that has raised the spectre of Wimbledon finally slipping out of the elite, after 10 rumbustious years among them. The mooted move to Ireland or Wales comes from a club which has three bases already, none of which are really home. The first team play at Crystal Palace; the reserves at Plough Lane; and both train in the park off the A3.Even if Wimbledon do not move, Kinnear might.

But no, Kinnear is not describing a possible future in Dublin or Cardiff; he is recalling an actual past, a job he held for six years in Dubai.It is a long way from managing Wimbledon, but in the circumstances, Kinnear could be forgiven if he felt temporarily disorientated. He leaned back in his chair and purred: "a 40,000-capacity all-seat stadium; 10 practice pitches with surfaces like bowling greens; a youth system from six-year-old to adult with all the best kids in the city; and money to burn." If this is what it is going to be like no wonder Wimbledon want to move. A year ago the trainer and his wife Elizabeth mislaid Kempton 50 miles from the stable only to recover him after what Doumen describes as "a bizarre series of coincidences"."Anything to do with Kempton seems lucky for us.". In a converted transport cafe overlooking the public park where Wimbledon train, Joe Kinnear was describing the manager's version of fantasy football. That opinion was then broadcast on television before the race, so I felt a bit embarrassed afterwards."This time I do think Algan may be the one, he really is spot on," Williams said. He has been an integral cog in the Doumen team since he left Jenny Pitman's yard four years ago.Doumen has also targetted So Far Bold at Kempton's Feltham Novices' Chase and the trainer is not reluctant to make grand comparisons about him."He is a quality horse, who recently won the same good race at Auteuil that Val D'Alene had won en route to his success in the Racing Post Chase," he said.The role of the today's venue in the Doumen success story can be gauged from the fact that the family Jack Russell is called Kempton.And even Kempton, the dog, seems lucky for Doumen.