Given the current, difficult situation we thought it might be a good idea to take an occasional dip into the WIE archives. If nothing else, it keeps us busy. So here goes.

WIE Issue 5 (August 1993) – Part One

This was a 40-page issue to welcome the start of the 1993/94 season with the club still in the Conference. The previous season had seen the club finish in 20^th place in the table and only be reprieved from relegation thanks to St Albans City failing the ground grading thanks to a 140-year old oak tree standing within the terrace behind one of the goals at their Clarence Park ground. Hence the clever and, some might say, hilarious front cover.

One of the highlights in this issue was one correspondent describing his particular loathing for both Dover and Sittingbourne. The latter may today seem to be a strange choice, but back then their owner was splurging money in a failed attempt to get into the league (funny that). That and their particularly vocal manager, John Ryan, did little to do anything other than piss people off. Of course, it all fell apart for The Brickies, but that’s another story.

With a nod to the previous season another correspondent providing an account of his visit to Bradford City to see Frank Stapleton’s (remember him?) side lose 2-1 to visitors Hull City. Meanwhile our White Socks, recently to be heard starring on WUFC TV, recounted us with his views of the late season midweek defeat away at Yeovil Town. And he doubled up his contributions with an account of going to the Cup Winners Cup Final (remember that competition kids?) at Wembley in May in which Parma beat Royal Antwerp 3-1. To bring a more of a Wings focus to proceedings there was also the tortuous tale of the coach journey to and from the game at Telford United, which was only made bearable by the fact that we won 1-0.

In those early days of the fanzine we used to have regular contributions from supporters of other clubs and this issue was no exception. An old work mate of the editor was a St Johnstone fan (he did have the excuse of being from north of the border) and provided a piece on former Wing Martin Buglione’s debut for the Saints against Celtic.

Anyway, in two separate updates in the coming days we will share two particular highlights (for us, at least) from this issue. The first is WIE stalwart Tim’s game-by-game account of the previous season’s away campaign. And it doesn’t make particularly pleasant reading and, no doubt, you will realise that nothing much changes following the Wings away. The second will be the back cover, which was a reproduction of the lyrics from “Welling United” by The Sindicate. It’s so bad (of toe-curling proportions) that it is in fact brilliant. Enjoy.

We believe that, very occasionally, copies of WIE 5 appear on eBay.