AFC Wimbledon

[GM-MarkB]

With all due respect to Luton Town, any football fan with a conscience must surely be rooting for 'The Dons' tomorrow at the City of Manchester Stadium. If they win tomorrow, IMO, it will be a remarkable acievement for a club that was founded just 9 years ago to win a place in the Football League.

Fans of the 'Crazy Gang' must have thought the world had ended when the FL sanctioned the raping of their club and relocation the Milton Keynes. Kris Stewart must be a very nervous but proud man today. I bet he never thought they'd come this far this quick when he started the club.

If you don't know the story, this is a pretty good account of it all..

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2003/jan/11/clubsincrisis.sport

With Franchise FC losing last night, the dream is just that bit closer today....and tomorrow it could get even closer.

Good Luck to all involved, I for one will be pulling for you

[Superspy]

good read that, and at least now i finally know the story behind why everybody seems to hate MK Dons. Come on AFC.

[jonnydog]

Too many roundabouts in MK!!

[keyser_soze]

With Franchise FC losing last night, the dream is just that bit closer today....and tomorrow it could get even closer.

I read an interesting article about their relationship with MK Dons, rather than wanting to play them and beat them in the League, most AFC fans refuse to even recognise their existence, and threaten to boycott the fixture completely if it came up.

[GM-MarkB]

With Franchise FC losing last night, the dream is just that bit closer today....and tomorrow it could get even closer.

I read an interesting article about their relationship with MK Dons, rather than wanting to play them and beat them in the League, most AFC fans refuse to even recognise their existence, and threaten to boycott the fixture completely if it came up.

Do you honestly think that if it happens, they'll all be able to resist the temptation to go and support THEIR club over Franchise FC ?? Could you do it ? I'd just want to laugh in their faces and gloat.

[Kenny_Senior]

The Wimbledon vs MK Dons fixture is an inevitibality in the next couple of seasons, so long as Wimbledon win tomorrow and get into the FL.

The clubs would only be a promotion or relegation, depending on who you are, away from being in the same league and with cup competitions like the JP Trophy being regionalised so that they are in the same section, their meeting is bound to happen sooner or later.

That said, I still think Luton will win tomorrow.

[herouk87]

Too many roundabouts in MK!!

truer words have never been said

[roversdude]

sorry will be rooting for Brabin - still a legend

[The Red Baron]

I don't really mind who wins tomorrow. Luton had a raw deal from the FA, so I'd be happy to see them come back up.

Shame one of them couldn't get automatic- rather than having that knob Steve Evans back in the League.

[Surrey Rover]

I don't really mind who wins tomorrow. Luton had a raw deal from the FA, so I'd be happy to see them come back up.

Shame one of them couldn't get automatic- rather than having that knob Steve Evans back in the League.

The genuine life time supporters of Crawley Town might not quite see it that way just as we may have felt let down should fans of other clubs celebrated our relegation in 98 just because we had Mark Weaver in charge.

[The Red Baron]

I don't really mind who wins tomorrow. Luton had a raw deal from the FA, so I'd be happy to see them come back up.

Shame one of them couldn't get automatic- rather than having that knob Steve Evans back in the League.

The genuine life time supporters of Crawley Town might not quite see it that way just as we may have felt let down should fans of other clubs celebrated our relegation in 98 just because we had Mark Weaver in charge.

I don't see how you can equate the two. Mark Weaver didn't go around upsetting people from other clubs. Upsetting our fans was his mission- and he was good at it!

[Surrey Rover]

You are missing the point. Why deny the fans of Crawley Town a bit of history and glory just because you think Evans is \"a knob\". I don't think too highly of him myself but Crawley Town and its fans will be still here long after Steve Evans has moved on.

[Kenny_Senior]

Whichever team loses tomorrow, I'd expect them to go and get back into the Football League in the next few years. Both clubs are certainly worthy of it.

As for Crawley then fair play to them, but I do fear they'll disappear quickly out of the FL once the money men who've financed their promotion decide they have had enough. They'll be the next Rushden & Diamonds.

[jonathanclaire]

absolutely random.

but yeah.

i am actually an AFC wimbledon fan. my mum's BF supports donny and thats why i follow them.

tomorrow is going to be huge. I shall post an article i wrote on AFC shortly. ENJOY x

[jonathanclaire]

It all has a sense of déjà vu to it. A South London club on a rise from the Southern

League into the football league with a unique brand of football that ensures the clubs

fortunes are always moving forward, on the pitch and off it.

Down at AFC Wimbledon they’re following a familiar SE19 blueprint that their namesake

Wimbledon FC drew up in the eighties under Dave ‘Harry’ Bassett and his Crazy Gang.

Heroes like Vinnie Jones and Dennis Wise fired the ‘old’ Wimbledon from the fourth

division all the way up to the first division in five seasons.

Fast forward 25 years and Terry Brown is the man in control of a new Crazy Gang. Formed

by the supporters from the ashes of Wimbledon, who were controversially relocated and

rebranded to become the Milton Keynes Dons, the AFC is said to be an acronym for ‘A fans’

club’.

Watched by an average crowd of 3,000 even on the bottom rung of the football pyramid, the

side have enjoyed a steady climb from the Combined Counties League and have celebrated

four promotions in eight years. Now AFC Wimbledon are three games away from a return to

the Football League.

The heroes of this story probably won’t go on to star in Hollywood movies or play in World

Cups, but under the leadership of captain Danny Kedwell and playing Brown’s attractive

passing football, this side can play their part one of the greatest underdog stories in football.

If they can progress in the Conference playoffs in the coming fortnight then they will write

the history books once again for this corner of London.

“It’s a peculiar club,” says manager Brown, “you don’t hear supporters massively dwelling

on the Selhurst Park days, you don’t even hear them dwelling on Harry Bassett’s phenomenal

success - nobody will ever do that again. But they’ll go back to Allen Batsford and what he

achieved taking us out of the Southern League, and into the Football League.

“If we can have a similar scenario,” he says, before pointing out they can never emulate

Batsford and what he did, “then we’ll have taken part in history.”

Kedwell leads the team from the front, scoring 15 goals in his debut season to get Wimbledon

out of the Conference South then a further 26 last term to ensure they finished in top half

of the Conference. This season’s tally of 23 has the fans dreaming of that all important

promotion.

“It’s very important, obviously for the fans.” he explains: “Because of what’s happened in

the past it’s very important to them and all the players know that - and what a thing to do -

to get this team here and get them back into the Football League. I don’t think we’d ever be

forgotten.”

It’s clear that promotion means as much to the players as it does for the fans, and with

Wimbledon amassing a colossal 90 points this season to secure second place, you get the

sense that Kedwell has his boys have earned the right to dream about taking this club over the

finish line.

“It’s massive for me. Obviously I’m captain of the club and I just can’t get it out of my mind.

I just sit there thinking, ‘I could be captain of the club getting them back to the Football

League and picking up that cup up for all of those fans, the true fans, the Wimbledon fans’ -

it would be amazing and never forgotten. It would be the highlight of my career.”

Kedwell’s goalscoring exploits haven’t gone unnoticed and larger clubs have expressed

interest in him before with the promise of higher level football and much better wages,

but Wimbledon’s number nine isn’t going anywhere until the job is done and his dream is

realised.

“It’s just the whole thing,” he tells me, when I ask what keeps him in the blue and yellow

shirt, “the players, the staff, the manager and the fans. It’s just the whole environment. The

whole club just makes you so welcome. I’m enjoying my football here and I don’t see why

I should move on and go somewhere where I might not. This is a place I love playing at and

turning up everyday training with the club I love.”

And is there still a hint of the former Wimbledon here, as the new club progresses like the

former?

“I think there is,” says Kedwell, “just the name and coming to play here - the fans are just

amazing. I think there is still a bit of a Crazy Gang mentality at this new Wimbledon.”

The setup at AFC is clearly an important factor, and he is quick to suggest that “unless it was

the Premier League” his feet are firmly rooted in Merton before laughing and conceding by

his own admission that he doubts he’ll ever get that far. His ambition is simple: “I’m here to

get AFC Wimbledon back into the Football League.”

If the side can dispatch of Fleetwood Town over two legs in the playoff semi-final next week

then the prospect of leading the team out at Manchester City’s Eastlands Stadium for the final

will become a reality for their captain, for whom nothing else but promotion matters.

“It would be emotional, obviously leading out the players and seeing the boy’s faces. It’s

another experience for us. It’s a bit nerve-racking going into these semi-finals thinking ‘I just

can’t imagine if it doesn’t happen.’ I don’t know what I’ll do if we don’t get through - I’ll

probably lose it!”

Former Aldershot manager Brown is equally keen to finally break a hoodoo that has seen

him agonisingly close to realising his own ambitions after missing out on promotion to the

Football League with his two former clubs.

“It’s been my own personal ambition to be a Football League manager.” He explains: “That’s

been my ambition since I started managing some 10-15 years ago at Hayes. I came

desperately close with them and Aldershot, so this is another opportunity to take that final

hurdle.”

Personal ambitions aside, Brown also throws light on the importance of the task in hand

with regards to Wimbledon’s supporters: “You have to see the bigger picture with this club.

It is real history. We celebrated the Blue Square South like we’d won the European cup

and everything about going back to the village to drink with the locals and going back to

Wimbledon to celebrate.

“Now if we win at Manchester, that’s if we get there for a start, we won’t actually be able to

drive back and celebrate in Wimbledon, but I’m sure during the next week we would party in

Wimbledon -the whole ethos about the club is that it wants to come back to Wimbledon and I

hope that the club do come back there someday.”

For now at least, Wimbledon play their home matches at the Kingsmeadow Stadium, or

The Fans’ Stadium in Kingston, and those fans that have stuck by the club are now being

rewarded with some fantastic football implemented by Brown who hopes it will bring the

club glory in the divisions above.

“We are a footballing side. I’m in a position now where I’ve earned the right to play a brand

of football that I enjoy. It’s very much based on the model of the Barcelona and Arsenal

game, with a bit more discipline. That’s the way I want to play my football.

“It can be successful.” He says, before condoning any naysayers: “Its rubbish to assume that

there’s only one way to play in League One and League Two, its absolute rubbish. I might

have egg on my face by saying that, but if we get there, we’ll play our football.”

Praised for this football finesse throughout the season, Brown’s side draw yet more

comparisons to Bassett’s team of the eighties, often in the press for their style of football,

although for very different reasons. The days of crude ‘Route One’ football - made famous

by the original Dons and lambasted in the press as unsophisticated have been banished to the

archives. The new philosophy here has the manager waxing lyrical about his squad’s ability

to outplay their opposition.

“We do religiously practise it and it becomes like second nature,” he says of the

system. “From the Cambridge game in the latter part of this season, it was like turning a

switch on and going ‘blimey, they’re doing that automatically, they’re not even looking up,’

- they were getting it and playing it, getting it forward, getting it back and that comes with

months and months of practise and it’s lovely when it comes into fruition and I think that

next year we’ll be a much better side than we are this year.”

With such belief from the fans, players and indeed the manager you might be wondering why

on 90 points, AFC Wimbledon didn’t win the Blue Square Bet Premier hands down. Instead,

that was done by the well-financed ‘Manchester City of the Conference’ Crawley Town,

who finished the season on 105 points via a rather well documented trip to the red side of

Manchester in the FA Cup.

The majority of Crawley’s goals were scored by frontman Matt Tubbs who cost the club

£250,000 - a staggering amount of money at this level, and a fee that could buy you the

whole Wimbledon squad (and a bit). So is there any animosity towards the champions at the

Kingsmeadow?

“Not really,” says Brown, “If I was given the finances that Crawley were given, would I have

gone and bought a load of youngsters in last year? Well, I wouldn’t have been able to afford

to, because with the money comes the pressure and Steve Evans (the Crawley manager)

handled that pressure all along - he said it was project promotion and he achieved that and did

it with some very good buys.

“The fact they got beaten 1-0 by Manchester United at Old Trafford tells you a heck of a lot

about that outfit and I think that they will romp through League Two.”

The league table is a testament to what Brown has achieved here on the limited budget that

the Dons have, something he says is “very satisfying” as he closes the chapter on the race

to the title with Crawley: “The truth is, we’re a good ten points plus behind Crawley, they

thoroughly deserved to win the league. They were the best team in at and as long as we’re the

best team in the playoffs, I’ll be the happiest man in the world.”

The playoffs are the main focus for AFC Wimbledon now, and that has been the case for a

number of weeks as the team gear up for one last push towards the Football League. One

thing they will be hoping to avoid is the playoff jinx that failed to get Wimbledon out of

the Conference South two years running under former manager Dave Anderson - and that

ironically led to Brown getting the job.

“I took over from Dave Anderson.” He recalls: “He was a fabulous bloke and he had a good

set of players – he was desperately unlucky two years on the trot. He went into his playoff

finals decimated with injury. Well, I’m going into these playoff finals with 22 fit players.”

Due to a fixture pileup in the season, AFC Wimbledon endured what Brown described as

a “torturous January and February”, where his side fulfilled eleven fixtures in January alone.

It caught up with them and the top spot that they had occupied was seized by Crawley,

something that Kedwell also recognises as the point where the season momentarily reached

breaking point.

“It absolutely took it out of us.” He says, “If the games hadn’t have been like that I think we

could have definitely pushed Crawley for the title.” In a twist of fate though, that same fixture

pileup has arrived more recently for the other playoff sides, much to the elation of everyone

at the club.

“The mood here couldn’t be more buoyant to be honest,” says Brown. “We come into the

final phase of the season in our best form. I’m sincerely hoping that same sort of fixture

pileup that the other teams in the playoffs are suffering will catch up with them because we

look fresh and some of them look a bit leggy. I know how that feels - it doesn’t matter how

much buoying you do and how much geeing up you do, if the legs are tired, they’re tired. We

go into it very fresh and playing some of our best football.”

Kedwell echoes the manager’s sentiments with regards the general vibe at the club it, and is

to be expected for any team facing the prospect of potential promotion.

“It’s absolutely buzzing at the minute round the camp.” Says the captain: “We’ve got a fit

squad and a full squad raring to go. We have the last game of the season tomorrow against

Grimsby, but really that’s just a little warm up for us. We’re all concentrating on the play-offs

next Friday.”

Although Luton and Wrexham will be considered hot favourites for promotion via the

playoffs, Brown is focusing on the task in hand which is the continued forward momentum

gained by seasons like this, and experience like the playoffs.

“I think it’s important that from our point of view the spectators see progression every year.

They’ve seen progression in the last nine years, and we’ve progressed again this year. If we

don’t get in to League Two this year, and get up next year then that would be fine. The club

has to keep driving forward, it can’t stand still. It has to keep going forward like it has done

over the last nine years.”

If the club is successful in the playoffs, it will be a remarkable achievement for a team

founded on a dream. Brown has his own dreams and he is currently visualising the future and

growth of Wimbledon regardless of the outcome of this campaign.

“I’m looking now at who we’re keeping and I’m looking to keep the vast majority of the

squad intact. That is extremely satisfying as a manager because the one thing you need to

build a side is continuity. It’s no good saying we’ve got a very good young side if we don’t

keep those boys on board and next season we’ll be able to keep the vast nucleus of our

squad together. If you’re trying to play the type of football that we’re playing then it’s really

important that you keep the bodies on board. I don’t have to go through the pattern and the

shape every game - everybody already knows what it is.”

The future looks exceptionally bright for Wimbledon regardless of promotion or not, but just

in case they did go up, would Brown look to ring the changes in the hope to keep pushing on?

“It would open up some better finances for us and we’d have more money to play with but I

would want to start with the nucleus of this squad, they’re the boys – if they’re good enough

to get us there this year, then they’ll be good enough to start next year.”

It’s a refreshing approach to see a manager have faith in his team’s ability to make the step up

and it smacks a little of Ian Holloway and his Football League dream team who are currently

doing battle with the big guns in the business end of the pyramid. I ask Brown how he thinks

his side might do if they get into League Two.

“I think we’d be okay.” he says. ”We’re a fantastic footballing side but that wouldn’t be

enough in League Two. We’d have to be a bit more physical as well. I don’t think we’re a

million miles off any of the clubs that have gone in there, and all acquitted themselves very

well with some aging, ailing rubbish up there that needs to come out and start again.”

It’s clear that young teams and attractive football are the order of the day for Brown, and

one genuinely hopes he will get a chance to show that “aging, ailing rubbish” how it’s done.

I’m told that anyone hoping to play for his side will need “a work ethic and they need to

train hard. It’s about working your balls off on the pitch. We don’t carry any passengers on a

Saturday.”

You can’t say fairer than that, and AFC Wimbledon certainly have worked their balls off to

get to the cusp of returning to the level that their ancestors played at, and the only passengers

they carry here are the fans who pack the ground out week-in week-out to watch the legacy of

their stolen club continue in astonishing fashion.

Kedwell can’t hide the excitement from his voice: “Everyone you talk to, they say ‘Just

imagine Wimbledon getting back in that Football League.’ Everybody wants it and we’re

here now and we have to make sure we do it.”

They might not win the FA Cup like the Crazy Gang of 1988, and it might be a while before

they’re mixing it with the Premier League teams like their predecessors, but one thing is

for certain - Wimbledon could be the talk of South London once again and based on the

evidence, would you bet against history repeating itself once again?

[Barmby Rover]

Good to see the real fans sticking two fingers up to the FA who allowed money to dictate how they interpret rules. QPR, West Ham, Leeds etc etc have all followed on with fewer consequences than poorer clubs have had.Luton have the same argument, but Wimbledon have been working on it longer, so good luck to them, I reckon it is their turn. Luton next year.

[dknward2]

Would love to see us play a pre season friendly either home or away against these