KLINSMANN'S PERFORMANCE COULD SEND WIMBLEDON BOSS ON HIS WAY.

For how much longer is Joe Kinnear going to put up with the job of keeping homeless Wimbledon in the Premiership without anymore of a sniff of soccer silverware?

Year after year any number of club chairman and managers continue to praise Kinnear as one of the best in the business. The man himself has even picked up the odd award along the way. Nobody has much to say against him.

The continuing Dons' survival saga runs on and on as one of the most remarkable stories in the history of the game. But even the most die-hard supporter has to ask if the dream can last forever.

And such thoughts must have been in the mind of Kinnear himself on Saturday at Selhurst Park as he saw his side - albeit depleted by injury - thrashed 6-2 by Tottenham.

It was only champions Arsenal's win at Everton on Sunday that ensured Wimbledon's continued presence in the top flight, but fans must realistically believe that there will be yet another season of survival and little more next time around with precious little prospect of glory.

The Tottenham game was just another example of the power of the chequebook and sheer class calling the tune.

Those of us who thought that a certain Herr Jurgen Klinsmann was a month or two, if not a year, beyond his sell-by date were made to eat an ample portion of humble strudel - filled mostly by misconceived words rather than apple.

The £200,000 a week German looked worth every pfennig of his Monopoly money contract. It seemed amazing that the German management are not rating him as having a key role in their World Cup campaign this summer.

That would seem about as ludicrous as promoting a Rolling Stones concert with Mick Jagger as an absentee.

Spurs soared ahead after 18 minutes with Les Ferdinand knocking one in, only to see the Dons' Peter Fear equalising three minutes later before claiming a second on the half hour.

It was astonishing to realise that this was only the seventh time that Fear had made a start in a Wimbledon line-up this season. Quite apart from the goals he was quite the most commanding Dons' player on view.

Certainly there were few fears then among the Crazy Gang faithful about what was in the end to turn out as quite the worst home result of the season.

Four minutes before half-time, however, it all started to go very badly wrong as Herr Klinsmann set about his business with a precision-measured shot past Neil Sullivan.

By the second half the German was unstoppable, scoring three goals in six minutes, and any modicum of hope for home supporters in the 25,820 all-ticket crowd was wiped out.

The cause was done no good early in the second half when Ben Thatcher clattered Spurs' Allan Neilsen and was sent off for the tackle which would have disgraced the Rugby League Cup Final.

It may have been agony for the Crazy Gang both on and off the pitch, but anyone who appreciates fine football could only sit back, gasp and admire one of the game's greatest players.

The trouble for the Dons is that - even with Premiership status assured - they now have to travel to Leeds on Sunday in the hope of giving their supporters something by way of consolation at the end of a desperately disappointing season.

A morsel of expectation may come from Leeds' lacklustre 3-0 defeat at the hands of Manchester United. Before that there was a 3-3 draw with Coventry City, normally relegation strugglers but now European contenders for next season.

My betting record this season has been saved by wagering on 0-0 draws involving Wimbledon.

A Sunday 0-0 pay out does not look to be all that unlikely.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000.Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.