Guitar hero Johnnie Jackson raised £10,000 for a children’s cancer charity by performing open-air gigs in his back garden and posting them online during lockdown.
Now he’s turned his promotion-chasing AFC Wimbledon players into the boys of strummer by treating them to a training session like no other - playing tennis at the All England Club. Surprisingly, as sporting neighbours, the rebooted Crazy Gang had never collaborated with their tennis cousins just across Wimbledon Park until their masterclass from head coach Dan Bloxham and former British No.1 Annabel Croft.
But Dons manager Jackson knows his way round the strings of a tennis racquet like the strings of a guitar. And if Wimbledon, who visit Swindon this weekend, make it into the League Two play-offs, it could yet be the biggest party since Andy Murray conquered the strawberry fields of SW19.
Jackson said: “This season has had its challenges - we lost, for me, the best player in the league (Ali Al-Hamadi to Ipswich for £1.25 million) and our two first-choice centre-backs were out injured for months. But we’ve hung in there, stayed amongst it, and we’ve still got a chance if we win our last three games.
“The lads have never been through a training session like this before, and I think it was a lot tougher than some of them expected. But this place is so iconic - it’s part of our summer and for us never to have come down here before, AFC Wimbledon meets Wimbledon the home of tennis, seems a bit crazy.
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“Normally, when the Championships are going on, players are just getting back into pre-season training and their lungs are bursting running up and down sand dunes rather than playing tennis. But we managed to find this window where the lads could come and have a look round, go on the tour and admire the view from the Royal Box on Centre Court, and they loved it.”
Bloxham, a regular fan at home games, says the phoenix club is “an inspiration to the community and it was an honour to welcome them to our Wimbledon.”
Former British No.1 Annabel Croft (centre) lines up with the AFC Wimbledon squad (Ian Vogler / Daily Mirror)On their greatest hits playlist for 2023-24, Ronan Curtis’s 94th-minute winner against the demon franchise, to give the Real Dons their first win over their unloved cousins at Plough Lane, goes straight in at No.1 in the charts.
Curtis ran to the corner flag, lifted ball-boy Noah Johnston like a trophy, and the clip went viral on social media when the kid disappeared beneath a joyous scrum of players, substitutes, management and fans.
Jackson admitted: “They were great scenes, and I have to admit I’m one of the grown-ups who joined in the madness. Fortunately it turns out Noah was fine, and he absolutely loved it, but we all got swept along in the moment. He came down to the training ground the following week, had some lunch with the players and we gave him a signed shirt.”
Johnnie Jackson puts his forehand to the test (Ian Vogler / Daily Mirror)It was Jackson’s biggest splash on social media since, as Charlton manager, he endeavoured to lift spirits with his one-man gigs, adapting The Jam’s hit That’s Entertainment into a cover version entitled That’s Isolation. Check it out - he’s actually very good.
“It was something constructive to do during lockdown,” said Jackson, now 41. “I put myself out of my comfort zone because I love playing the guitar and singing along - but until then, it had always been in private.
"The thought of playing in front of an audience, or putting it out there in public, terrified me. But in the end, it was a constructive way to raise about ten grand and give me a bit of purpose in a time when there was no football and we weren’t allowed to leave our front doors.”
Wimbledon's James Ball impressed former world No.24 Annabel Croft (Ian Vogler / Daily Mirror)It’s been a sobering week for everyone at Wimbledon after the death of inspirational former manager Joe Kinnear. Jackson acknowledged: “His success at Wimbledon, in terms of where they finished in the League, was unparalleled - put it this way, I’ve got quite a way to go to catch up with him.”
At the All England Lawn Tennis Club, conversation was peppered with stories of Kinnear’s reign, including one belter from the day he took over after Peter Withe was sacked.
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Gathering his players together outside the spartan hut at their training ground beside the A3, and to widespread groans, Kinnear told them: “We’re all going for a run.” Five hundred yards later, he called an abrupt halt outside the Robin Hood pub. “Everyone inside,” he said. “And nobody leaves until we’ve had it out.”
Kinnear and his players were there until closing time.
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