0% Villa - AFC Wimbledon...

[SoccerHQ]

Luton will go up next season given the state Stockport and Lincoln have come down in.

Good to see the Wombles back up.

[Dave Cooper please]

Good to see the Wombles back up.

A pedant would say that they are not back up as they are a new club who have never been in the league before!

[Risso]

The only thing that I think you can accuse Milton Keynes of is circumventing the usual way of getting a league team through the usual pyramid system, but then the city grew at such an extraordinary rate that that was never going to be a realistic option.

Why wasn't it a realistic option? As AFC Wimbledon have shown, it is possible to go from founding to League status in under a decade.   Also, if the city was growing at such an extraordinary rate and manifestly a proportion of this growth would have been football fans, how come they failed to support the team that was already in existence and bore the city's name?

Because Milton Keynes is essentially a London overspill town, and the first generation of MKers mostly all supported a London team.  About 20 years ago, there was a team called Wolverton (not far from where John E lives) who I think made it to the league below the Conference (Beazer Homes league?).  They spent a relative fortune chasing league glory, renamed themselves MK Wolves, then went bust.

[Ad@m]

i think most fans including me would agree that the way they entered the league could have been done a lot better and fairer, like Risso said that is the thing in which they stand accused.

but there is a big band waggon which you are obviously riding on, who hate MK Dons and love AFC Wimbledon, then when you get under neath to the true story its not as black and white as you would make out,

AFCW are not pearly white and they themselves have not done evertyhing in a fair manner,
but hey ho lets just keep on hateing the MKD cus thats the better story for so called 'proper fans' of football.

I'm not on a bandwagon and I've never said AFCW are pearly white.  Your views of AFCW are causing you to miss the point.

MK Dons is a club that was stolen from another set of fans.  Imagine yourself in that situation.  It's horrific and is pretty much the worst thing that can happen in football in my eyes.  I think I'd prefer my team to go bust than to be stolen and moved to another town.

As a group of fans, AFCW have created something out of the ashes of that crime and are now within one tier of the team that jumped the queue by stealing their club.  It shows what fans can do when faced with adversity and I applaud them for it.  They've earnt their day in the sun and I hope they get the opportunity very soon to get one over on MK Dons in revenge for what they've been through.

[Mister E]

so AFC wimbledon play outside of Wimbledon, bought someone elses ground which is not in there borough, and now charge them rent for playing in it whilst they call the new ground they bought home

and we are all supposed to like them ?

AFCW don't play in their own borough mainly because ... their own borough effectively turfed them out!

[Damo70]

Wimbledon for the way they played and Luton for the pitch and the fan ban will never be universally popular but that wasn't the fans fault. The fans of both clubs were let down badly by the people running the clubs and the authorities. Did the luton fans deserve that points reduction that effectively guaranteed relegation?. As for Wimbledon fans who had their club and League place stolen I'm delighted they are back. I think when they started they were seven divisions below MK Dons and now it's one.

[dave.woodhall]

Wimbledon for the way they played and Luton for the pitch and the fan ban will never be universally popular but that wasn't the fans fault.

You wouldn't have said that if you'd met a Luton fan at the time. They were, almost to a man, horrible about it.

[AV82EC]

I have to be honest I f***** hate Wimbledon.  Any team that brings the alehouse football and thuggery, disguised as " having a bit of fun", to the League as they did in the 80's and 90's deserves every piece of bad luck going IMO.  Lets not forget this bunch of a******** unleashed the likes of Vinnie Jones, Dennis Wise and other c**** on us and I have still not forgiven them.  That Sam Hamman was a complete and utter t***** as well.  And Plough Lane, what a f****** dump that was, and then they ground shared at f****** Palace as well just to add insult to injury.  And they knocked us out of the FA Cup 3 times in 6 years with some of the worst football its ever been my shame to witness.  And one of them ended Styephen Froggatts career with an appalling challenge in the Dalian Atkinson wondergoal game.  The 7-1 when we beat them was probably in my all time top 5 Villa 90's moments as it consigned to the dustbin what those c**** had done to us over the previous 5 seasons.  They've also spawned a thousand imitators who seem to think there style of kick and rush thuggish hoofball is the way to get your team up the leagues and unfortunately in the barely sane world of English football it succeeds (John beck at Cambridge anyone? shudders) with disciples like Allardyce and Pulis able to keep teams in the premiership playing like this.

So apologies to those who think this is some Disney fairy story, but they're Wimbledon, and I don't forget. C****.

And breathe..........

[Damo70]

Wimbledon for the way they played and Luton for the pitch and the fan ban will never be universally popular but that wasn't the fans fault.

You wouldn't have said that if you'd met a Luton fan at the time. They were, almost to a man, horrible about it.

I have to admit that firstly I don't think I have ever met a Luton fan and secondly, having visited Kenilworth Road once (Bossie's debut I think) they can bring the ban back because it's not top of my list of places to revisit.

[not3bad]

Is it true that AFC Wimbledon will refuse to play MK Dons if they are drawn together?  Or was that just while they were a none-league side?

[Concrete John]

Is it true that AFC Wimbledon will refuse to play MK Dons if they are drawn together?  Or was that just while they were a none-league side?

When they had a possibility of this happening in the cup this season I don't think there was ever a danger either club would fail to fulfill the fixture, just that the AFC guys didn't want to as they felt it was giving credence to MK Dons existance as a football club.

[john e]

Is it true that AFC Wimbledon will refuse to play MK Dons if they are drawn together?  Or was that just while they were a none-league side?

When they had a possibility of this happening in the cup this season I don't think there was ever a danger either club would fail to fulfill the fixture, just that the AFC guys didn't want to as they felt it was giving credence to MK Dons existance as a football club.

the only people who were getting all excited were fans from other clubs as far as i could see

[cheltenhamlion]

Can we just agree that Wimbledon and Luton are a pair of ******?

[Dave Cooper please]

Can we just agree that Wimbledon and Luton are a pair of c***s?

.
Yes, yes we can

[LeeB]

Wimbledon for the way they played and Luton for the pitch and the fan ban will never be universally popular but that wasn't the fans fault.

You wouldn't have said that if you'd met a Luton fan at the time. They were, almost to a man, horrible about it.

I have to admit that firstly I don't think I have ever met a Luton fan and secondly, having visited Kenilworth Road once (Bossie's debut I think) they can bring the ban back because it's not top of my list of places to revisit.

That was my one and only experience of Kenilworth Rd too.

Thank Christ.

Anyway, I was in the "fair play to 'em" camp when I heard the news on Saturday, but after reading this thread and in particular AV82EC's evocotive rant I hope they crash and burn.