THE Wimbledon fraternity is grieving the sudden loss of Michael ‘Mikey T’ Taliadoros. We at Wombles Downunder pay this tribute to a much-loved friend and legendary devotee of the Dons.
There will never be another MIKEY T
What can I possibly say that hasn’t already been said by so many so well who knew Michael Taliadoros.
Firstly, thank you to those who’ve reached out with condolences and messages of support to me — it is appreciated and I’ll try and get back to each of you, individually. Like you all I’m in shock and I don’t know if we’ll ever get used to this.
My thoughts are with Mikey’s family at this difficult time. 56 is no age at all.
I owe this incredible journey behind the mic to him and to Geoff Hawley. Mike gave me an opportunity to work in broadcasting again at the Eastbourne Borough game in the season we returned to the Football League.
Off air, he threw a scenario at me where Sam Hatton had scored a ridiculous amount of goals in the game and wanted to see how I responded! Whatever I said must have been half decent, because the decision was made to let me join the commentary.
We went on to win the actual game and go top for the first time and my colleagues asked if I could come back next week — and we’ve been doing it for over 16 years, up and down the country, making truly unforgettable and incredible memories.
A lot has been said about his encyclopaedic knowledge — there is no-one who could tell you the Cameroon World Cup squad of 1982 at the drop of a hat!!
His sense of humour was a gift. No-one has ever made me laugh so much that I’ve cried and my sides ached on a consistent basis over the years. He could also reel off the script of any “Young Ones” episode you care to mention with ease.
The biggest compliment he paid me was how we worked together, telling me that I knew exactly where to come in and where to leave off, so the commentary flowed naturally.
Over the years and in difficult times this has been an important factor to me providing a service to our supporters, knowing that for those who couldn’t make the game and at times were clinging on to our every word — that they felt wherever they were in the world they were there with us, that they really felt a part of it – “arms around the world” as Mikey would say.
There will never be another like him. With all the deserved memorials around Plough Lane, where it all started for both of us as kids, up the road, with THE Dons, back in the early eighties, I hope we’re able to come up with a lasting honour that is fittingly dedicated to the memory of a giant personality.
Rest easy my friend. — ROB CORNELL.
Of course, he was right. He was Mikey T!
A reassuring presence, even if you were never lucky enough to meet and/or get to know Mikey.
His famed memory, knowledge and recall were phenomenal, of course, as was his attendance record of 2,010 consecutive competitive first-team games that will surely never be beaten.
But there was the man himself, under all the stats. A kind, gentle and quick-witted soul with time and a welcome for everyone on a match day. There are many, many people who knew Mikey better than I did and I’ve already read some lovely, generous and often unique tributes about him.
We’ve placed perhaps the most heartfelt one of all, by his broadcasting wingman Rob Cornell, in the Plough Lane museum and fittingly, he’s in the Dons Legends and Icons cabinet. For that is what he is and always will be.
Everyone has a story involving him and all of the AFC Wimbledon podcasts have platformed many individual ones in an outpouring of grief at his loss at just 56.
My favourite memory is not surprisingly at Plough Lane, but for a London Broncos rugby league game. WDSA stalwart Dave Kenwery won a corporate box for one of their home games against Widnes and kindly invited me along, with a variety of other Dons fans and rugby league people.
A good time was had by all and Mikey joined us at the end of the game as did a couple of Widnes supporters, who were also big Everton fans. One of them fancied himself as a bit of a EFC historian.
I immediately looked at Mikey, sensing his ears had pricked up. I was not to be disappointed.
We regaled each other with tales of past Wimbledon v Everton meetings, including my most painful night as a Dons fan, when Everton beat us 8-0 in the League Cup in 1978. (“Bob Latchford 5 and Martin Dobson 3” reeled off Mikey from memory, adding the date and attendance for good measure).
Premier League games were mentioned, including the infamous 1994 game when Everton won 3-2 and avoided relegation. Again, Mikey named the Dons team without pausing for breath. Then came the moment.
Our Everton historian tried to claim their best-ever win in any competition was 9-1 on two occasions in the league. Mikey reminded us that they’d beaten Derby County 11-2.
“No, that never happened” our Evertonian added. Big mistake. As his mate reached for his phone to Google the facts, Mikey went for the jugular. “11-2 in the
5th Round of the FA Cup in January 1890.” His mate just nudged ‘Mr Everton’ and said “He’s right you know.” Of course, he was right. He was Mikey T. — RAY ARMFIELD.
The legendary voice of Wimbledon
I first met Mikey T around 2009 at Kingsmeadow (KM) when I reconnected with the club after being in Puerto Rico and the US. Mikey interviewed me at half-time on WDON. When I came to live in the UK in 2016 I started to see him regularly on the way to games and at KM. I’d listened to his impassioned broadcast of the 2011 Play-Off Final.
I came to see the guy as a good friend and indeed a club treasure. I used to try to time my arrivals at away bus stops and pubs and railway stations so I could catch him up and grab a conversation with him to round out my day. We walked to grounds notably at Barrow two seasons ago (3-1 to us) when we started out down Holker Street in sunshine and by the end encountered rain, battering wind and sleet.
Another time we huddled in a tiny shelter with club media manager Chris Slavin on Todmorden station being battered by a storm waiting for the Petticoat Junction train to come around the hill so we could eventually get to the Crown Ground in Accrington on time to see our last win under Mark Robinson 2-0 in wild weather.
Last season when we lost unjustly 1-0 at Lincoln City to Ryley Towler’s handball, Mikey lifted the spirits of the whole carriage young and old by his encyclopaedic recollections of games, dates and scorers. Mikey loved his sport in general and when I won a box to a London Broncos rugby league game with Ray and Sharon Armfield and other friends, he enjoyed it immensely. He always laughed recalling that the Dons Outlook fanzine in the 80s printed the View From Down Under column from Rob and I upside down!
With the development of the Worldwide Wombles overseas fans network, visitors have been coming to the club from China. the US and all over specifically to meet their hero Mikey. The international supporters loved him (as did all of us) but particularly the SweDons and the Norwegian Dons. He visited Norway two weeks before he passed for a surprise birthday party at the Wombles pub.
After finishing his media duties. Mikey would come up to hospitality, sit down and talk to people. He never played favourites, gave everyone of his time freely in that warm, interesting tone he had.
I’d sidle up to him and ask “got any plans for dinner mate?” and luckily for me, he’d often come along. We’d end up going to our favourite Jaffna House on Tooting Broadway for a curry with whoever else we could rope in. Rob and I did so with him after the Donny Rovers game recently. Win, lose or draw, we’d finish off the day talking about all things AFC Wimbledon and, of course, testing his incredible memory. I will always carry those fun times dear to me.
But it was the man outside of football that Michelle and I will miss big time. The caring, friendly, kind, selfless person that was Wimbledon through and through. The voice of the club. A true Dons legend. RIP Mikey T. — DAVID KENWERY.
Aix and pain – missing Mikey T
I knew Mikey for as long as I can remember. Like me, Mikey was a PISA boy. The Pissed Independent Supporters Association – a rag-tag rabble of gentlemen from all walks of life and Wimbledon-supporting backgrounds, but almost universally from some part of south-west London.
In summer 1997 we were in Aix-en-Provence, south of France, on Xav Wiggins’ stag do. One night, we were just being our usual chaotic selves, and Mikey just said ‘Ah, PISA – the drinking arm of WISA’. He named us, and it stuck. In that sense, he was one of our founding figures.
I think he and I became pretty close mates. For several years, we’d jokingly greet each other every time we met with the oft-used ‘Nescafe’ football gesture, a chuckle, and a big bear hug. I did have a bit of an issue at Stockport away one year trying to explain the gesture the stewards saw me give him.
I remember chuckling all the way home with him, driving the 70-odd miles back down the M1 after beating Franchise for the first time ever (in the JPT). The 180-odd Dons made so much of our moment at full-time, rolling and roaring down the stairs, that one of the Franchise stewards followed us out into the Megastore car park wanting to fight us. Mikey very politely, I recall, just told the bloke to calm down.
Our moments with Mikey were many, but we all know there was probably one big one – the Ronan Curtis goal, for what it meant to us all, and for how Mikey’s spontaneous reaction captured the very essence of what that moment meant to us and our club.
At our PISA boys end-of-season dinner that year, we got Mikey to re-deliver the commentary for the goal. Even again amid our usual chaos, you could have heard a pin drop until we all celebrated the image of the ball hitting the Franchise net.
Then there were his goalkeeping exploits. A regular ‘stopper’ for Dons fans’ Sunday league team Carlton Fairweather FC, he was also between the sticks when – back on Xav’s stag in Aix – we arranged to play a local team … who unbeknown to us were the regional champions and had Marcel Desailly as an old boy. Needless to say, they made mincemeat of us – except for Mikey, who stood up to everything they threw at him. They won 15-2, but such were his exploits that they all went out of their way to shake his hand afterwards. I think he even scored one of our goals.
Over the last three or four years, Mikey and I have been ‘2T’ railcard mates for away games. We went all over the country together, even in just those few seasons. We booked our Sheffield Wednesday tickets back in August. There’s going to be an empty seat next to me. I’m not going to let anybody sit in it. It’s Mikey’s seat. Miss you, mate. — LEE WILLETT.
AWFULLY sad news about the legend that is Mikey T. He was really good to me during my time here and would always sing Keep Right On (Birmingham song) to me and my dad whenever he saw us! He really made me feel at home and he will be terribly missed! — CRAIG COPE.
RIP Mikey T 😞💙💛❤️ pic.twitter.com/ZMBMRSkkL3
— Kevin Gage ⚽️🎤🎶 (@gageykev) October 5, 2026
A bit like John Motson, only better
Mikey’s death has left us reeling. No warning. Just gone. A hole ripped through the club. Something so totally unique. And so utterly irreplaceable.
Wimbledon has lost someone so very special. I’ve lost a friend. He was so kind. So gentle. He made people feel good. The rarest of skills. Simple, yet so rare.
People will rightly talk about his extraordinary memory. His outrageous grasp of stats. The 2,000-plus games. But I want to talk about the man. The kindness. The gentleness. The respect he showed everybody.
He never did club politics. He loved his routine. Football. His mates. The beautiful and very simple easy to enjoy game.
Recently, to mark his 2,000th match, I asked if I could take him for breakfast. But he just wanted the milestone to pass. Without fuss. At the game. Head down. But equally he didn’t want to seem ungrateful. That little balancing act said so much about Mikey. Even when the attention was uncomfortable, he was thinking about other people’s feelings.
There are so many memories.
My stag in Aix-en-Provence in 1999. Lee Willett had arranged a game through the local tourist board. We were a ragtag bunch. Wrong footwear. Hungover. Blistering heat. Quite a few of us, Mikey included, ended up sheltering in the shade under a stand, during the game!
Something had been badly lost in translation. These were a proper non-league club. Their patron was Marcel Desailly. Mikey, naturally, could tell us their league and status. They presented us with a pennant. We gave them a stag t-shirt. There were speeches in the club bar afterwards. We really had misread the situation.
We lost 15-2. Mikey scored one of our two. He was a very decent goalie back in the day, too for the mighty Carlton Fairweather FC.
But the humour was every bit as extraordinary as the memory.
We spoke a lot about all sorts of things. Not just football. He could make us laugh about literally anything. Talking about losing weight on one occasion, he said: “I’m not going to go from Susan Boyle to Barry McGuigan overnight.”
Those train journeys home after another defeat in the bad runs. Mood like thunder. Then one Mikey quip and the whole thing lightened.
Recently, General Lee announced his and Caroline’s 24th wedding anniversary in our PISA WhatsApp group. They’d both spent the day thinking it was their 24th. Mikey quietly pointed out it was their 25th. He remembered because of the game it was near. Of course he did.
I’m so glad he got to Norway recently. Titters said how much he enjoyed it. The pub. The village where the Wimbledon fans gather. He had so much time for our international fans. Even learning the Swedish national anthem in honour of the mighty Swedons.
The outpouring of emotion says everything. He left an indelible mark on this club. There will never be anyone again like Mikey.
Now we have to do him justice. Do him proud. Maybe take things back to basics. Respect everybody, as he did. Take his energy and passion and, united, deliver the next phase of this great football club. Every step with Mikey in our hearts and minds.
When I described him to people outside Wimbledon, I’d say: “He’s a bit like John Motson, only better.” But he was our Mikey. Our friend.
The Crazy Gang talks to The Culture Club. @Dons_Sayer_WDON interviewing the legend that is John Motson at half time pic.twitter.com/gj1i7Papfp
— Samuel West 💙💛 (@exitthelemming) September 29, 2018
The next away trip. The next game. We’ll feel his absence. But we’ll remember him too. And he’ll keep us smiling. Miss you, mate. More than words can say. — XAVIER WIGGINS.
