MY mate Simon Bassey will be playing for Wimbledon at the weekend - but he won't be coming anywhere near Turf Moor.

That is because he plays for AFC Wimbledon, the club created by the supporters of the other Wimbledon after their club was given permission to move home to Milton Keynes.

I have to confess I am very disappointed they have been allowed to do it.

I am a South London lad who as a kid played at the old Plough Lane on a number of occasions for my borough and my county. It was only five minutes down the road for me and I used to watch a few games.

It has been hard for the fans having to travel to Selhurst Park and what they and I always wanted to see was the club return to Merton where it belongs.

The aim was to get a nice 12,000 seater stadium full of fans but it did not work out.

It is a real shame that won't happen and a nightmare for the fans. Just crossing London is bad enough, getting to Milton Keynes is horrible.

But the fact is, it is another indication that in football today money talks. The Dons have been playing in a 26,000 stadium in front of just 5,000 and that can't be nice for the players.

I was out injured last season but the year before I played there and they were on the back of a 20 game unbeaten run and still there was only a small crowd to watch them.

So as a player you can understand why a club feels it has to move but I don't like the idea of franchising clubs like they do in America.

That is why I wish my mate Simon and the rest of the AFC Wimbledon lads all the best. They have not had any problem getting support and he claimed it was like playing for Manchester United.

Whenever they get off the coach for a game they are mobbed by 2,000 fans and their gates are really good. It is great to see the support for the team and I hope they can start climbing through the divisions as quickly as possible.

But for now everyone at Burnley has to concentrate on the other Wimbledon as we look to put last week's nightmare behind us.

A lot has been said and written about the game and I just want to tell the fans that all the players share their frustration.

It all went horribly wrong in the last minute but we just have to forget it and get on with the next game.

No one at the club blames the Skip because he has been brilliant for this club and no one can remember a mistake like it. The truth is we probably scored our second too early because we then started to just keep the ball at the back.

It was an unbelievable game and I have never had to play against nine men before and I think we have learned a few lessons.

With Robbie Blake looking lively and myself, Alan Moore and Gareth Taylor also looking to attack we should maybe have gone for a third.

But if we had won 2-1 everyone would have gone home happy and said it was a job well done.

We suffered with being a player down in the first two games of the season and we were given problems by Wolves and Brighton knocking the ball around. We did not make Bradford suffer enough.

We would have loved a game in midweek to get it all out of our system but have had to wait until Saturday.

The away fans will probably be able to come up in taxi - let's hope they don't have a happy return down south.