Dave Beasant: AFC Wimbledon are not just proud, the fans will be gloating over MK Dons
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IT won’t just be the moral high ground that AFC Wimbledon fans will enjoy taking to MK Dons on Saturday lunchtime, according to former Wombles legend Dave Beasant.
For the first time in the club’s 14-year history, AFC will be looking down from a higher league position on the club that ripped away its name and identity in 2002.
It has taken six promotions and years of sweat, toil and unstinting passion from fans who built up a phoenix club from nothing and Beasant insists they should enjoy the first-ever league meeting.
Beasant said: “The main thing from the fans’ perspective is that they are proud to be up there above MK. Not just proud, I think they are in a gloating mood.
“It will be a massive thing for the fans just because at the time of meeting, AFC will sit higher in the table than MK.”
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A fully paid-up member of Wimbledon’s Crazy Gang, Beasant saved a penalty from John Aldridge in the 1988 FA Cup Final win over Liverpool.
Fourteen years later, with Wimbledon then in the Championship and ground-sharing at Crystal Palace’s Selhurst Park, the club’s chairman Charles Koppel tried to transport Wimbledon to Dublin and a 60,000-capacity stadium.
When that move was vetoed, he switched focus to Milton Keynes and, to horror throughout football, a three-man FA panel approved the relocation.
Wimbledon FC became MK Dons in 2004. All but one of their past 12 seasons have been spent in Sky Bet League One.
The fans they left behind had to start again. AFC Wimbledon was formed in 2002 without any players.
Trials were held on Wimbledon Common – 230 players turned up - and so began the long journey to the first-ever league meeting against MK Dons.
With work due to start on a new 11,000-capacity stadium just 300 yards away from the club’s old Plough Lane ground next summer, Beasant believes Saturday’s game is little more than another stepping stone along a remarkable journey.
He added: “To move the club to Milton Keynes just wasn’t right and I was very disappointed that the club where I made my name as a player had suddenly lost its identity.
“It’s strange because our story, my Wimbledon, you never ever thought that that could or would be replicated. For us to go from non-league football to the First Division and winning the FA Cup within 11 years was a remarkable journey.
“And then suddenly AFC start on a journey that is as close as you can get to what we did but starting from further down.
“Whether or not they can emulate what we did and get to the top flight is a massive ask and one that be might be too far, but the next step’s in place already.
“The fact that they are going back to their spiritual home in Plough Lane is brilliant. Then you never know.”
AFC fans still refuse to call MK Dons by name, preferring the moniker Franchise FC instead. Many won’t go to Milton Keynes on Saturday on principle.
Lifelong fan Mark Lewis said: “I’m not going to go. The reason is that I believe that a lot of different emotions could come out - and that has nothing to do with football. And I’m a football fan.”
Terry Eames, AFC’s first manager in 2002 and the man who organised those trials on Wimbledon Common 14 years ago, is adamant about what he wants from the game.
Eames said: “I don’t think the two clubs could ever be friends. I just hope that AFC slaughter them, absolutely slaughter them. It would be fantastic to see. What was done to those fans – and the core are still there – they deserve it.
“Where they are at the moment is a fantastic achievement and I’d just love them to go into the game and beat them. Just beat them and then walk away.”