Ahead of Saturday's game against Portsmouth, fans of both sides seemed to be looking forward to the prospect of Matt Tubbs' return to Kingsmeadow, after he scored 15 goals for us in the first half of the season.

Portsmouth were hoping he would become the fifth former Don of the season to score against us, following goals for Charlie Wyke, Kwesi Appiah, Kaid Mohamed and Ismail Yakubu.

A number of our fans were relishing the opportunity to let Tubbs know (in no uncertain terms) how they felt about the nature of his departure.

A player saying what his new fans want to hear is hardly surprising, but some of Tubbs' comments didn't go down too well with our support, who he never quite seemed to connect with.

The revelation that he chose not to celebrate his goal against Portsmouth on Boxing Day, to avoid 'burning any bridges' in particular inspired some controversy.

In reality, he got off fairly lightly. Our fans were more than happy to remind him of his desire to join a club that could push for promotion, and also to suggest that he perhaps ought to have chosen a bit better.

But there was little in the way of abuse - many seemed to accept that his reasons for departure were not entirely unreasonable, as he moved much closer to home.

How to treat a returning player is a frequent topic of debate: it's true that Matt did a lot for us in the first-half of this season, but the notion that we owe him some sort of incontestable loyalty as a result is hard to justify.

Your Local Guardian:

What do we owe Matt Tubbs?

In the end, it worked out well for us. We had a bit of a dig at a former player (without being unreasonable), and also got to take pleasure in seeing him draw a blank - but as we've seen this season, the victory seems more often than not to go to the returning player, not his old fans.

It's interesting to see how being booed affects the performance of a player, particularly if he's got a point to prove at an old club.

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The number of goals we've conceded to our former players this season alone illustrates how such a return often inspires the player in question to raise their game.

Even at Kingsmeadow - hardly the most hostile of environments - getting a bit of stick often brings out a decent performance from these familiar faces.

Tubbs didn't score on Saturday, but he came close on more than one occasion, despite limited service.

At Wimbledon we see relatively few players leave us for bigger and better things, but those that do tend to be vilified a little: think Steven Gregory, Aaron Morris and John Sullivan.

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Bigger and better things: Steven Gregory lefts Dons for Gillingham in 2012

We've yet to be made to really regret winding up a returning player, beyond the odd goal here and there - but it might just be a matter of time before somebody puts in a real matchwinning performance against us.

A quick look at the fixture list suggests that one of the next former players to revisit Kingsmeadow will be Danny Hylton, historically one of our favourite pantomime villains.

I can think of a few of our fans who will be looking forward to 'welcoming' him back - let's hope his return is as unproductive as Tubbs' was!