Milton Keynes Dons

MK Dons have sealed promotion to the Championship with a 5-1 win over Yeovil.

Despite their fate being in Preston’s hands, the Dons went into the final day of the League One season in buoyant mood, and in the knowledge that anything other than a Preston win at Colchester would give them the initiative.

Karl Robinson’s side stormed into the lead thanks to Carl Baker’s effort seven minutes in, before two goals from Dean Lewington and goals from Darren Potter and Will Grigg ensured the Dons had done all they could at their end.

Preston will have gone into their own game with confidence, as they travelled to relegation-threatened Colchester. However, the hosts displayed tremendous fighting spirit, holding Preston for much of the game, before former West Ham man George Moncur hit the winning goal that would keep them in the division—and, in turn, send the Dons up.

For the Dons, the focus must quickly turn to Championship survival. With Dele Alli departing for Tottenham Hotspur this summer, the Dons cannot be complacent as they prepare for their first spell in the Championship since being renamed.

Robinson will be well aware of the need to bolster his squad. That can begin with the permanent signing of forward Grigg, who has been a key player in their promotion bid since signing on-loan from Brentford.

Many predicted that Benik Afobe’s departure for Wolverhampton Wanderers in January would spell the end of the Dons’ battle for automatic promotion. Yet, having survived that hammer blow, the Dons have kept scoring, and they eventually finished the season with 101 goals—more than any other side in the division.

Having suffered play-off heartache so many times in recent years, it was perhaps best for the Dons that they were able to avoid that mental stumbling block. It seems fitting, too, that Robinson was the man to take them up, after investing so much time and effort in this project. Keeping hold of the Football League’s second-youngest manager could be a battle in itself, as it is likely that Robinson will be in high demand in the Championship.

Prior to the Yeovil game, Robinson told BBC Sport that whatever happened, his side had enjoyed an “extraordinary season.” With promotion achieved, the Dons have an exciting—but difficult—task ahead of them in making sure that that is the case next time around.

January 26th was a mammoth day for both Luton Town and Milton Keynes Dons. Both sides dumped Premier League opposition out of the FA Cup to secure potentially lucrative ties in the fifth round of the tournament. 

Yet that magnificent day has been followed by inconsistent and faltering form from both. Between Luton and MK Dons, eight games have been played since their victories over Norwich and QPR respectively. In these games, both teams have lost three and drawn one. 

This downturn in form has caused MK Dons to lose touch with the play off positions in League One. Earlier in the season they were fighting for automatic promotion, yet now they are struggling to remain in the top half of the table. Even by winning their games in hand, at best they would find themselves eight points behind the top six. 

You sense that if they do not make the playoffs this year, manager Karl Robinson may be out of the door. 

Luton Town have also fell away from the playoff positions in the Conference Premier and need to win all of their games in hand to eradicate the gap. 

With less than a third of the league season remaining, both sides must now muster the results to push themselves back into contention. 

This may be especially difficult for the MK Dons who lack an instinctive and regular goal scorer. 

Maybe it is therefore a good thing that both sides suffered comprehensive defeats in the fifth round of the FA Cup today. 

MK Dons did not show any sign of a good performance in the first half of their match against a resurgent Barnsley side. After finishing the half 2-0 down a slight glimmer of hope was afforded to them when they pulled a goal back. Barnsley dominated the final minutes however and came out 3-1 winners. 

Luton Town put up a fight in the early stages against Millwall but ultimately paid the price for some poor defending, before going down 3-0. 

It would be a travesty to see either side miss out on a chance of promotion once more. Multiple failures to gain promotion in recent years have caused fans to become frustrated. 

A fabulous cup run is thrilling while it lasts, but when its over without a trophy to show for it, results in the league have to be there. 

Sadly and especially for the MK Dons, the task at hand is going to be tricky. It is up to the teams to try and turn their league campaigns around and ensure there can be better in store for the fans of both sides.

It's the fans after all who will remember the pain of a poor league campaign more than a valiant but expected cup exit. 

It was ended with casual flick. It couldn’t really have been more cruel. After ninety minutes of admirable defensive resolve, the underdog of AFC Wimbledon looked to have earned the draw their efforts deserved and a home cup replay to boot.

Yet the brilliance of the FA Cup is tied up in its unpredictability—things rarely run to script. Milton Keynes Dons were the favorites, but the match transcended the confines of the conventional cup game. The script was somehow irrelevant, voided by the enormity of the occasion and the ramifications of this one match some ten years in the making.

It was a classic story of betrayal, heartbreak and ultimately redemption. One club becoming two—a phoenix rising from the flames of the original "crazy gang."

The catalyst of the simmering animosity that underpinned today's game was a decision to allow the old Wimbledon FC, FA Cup winners in 1988, to relocate 60 miles from their prodigal home to a purpose-built all-seater in Milton Keynes.

Supporters of the original Wimbledon, outraged at the acute sense of betrayal, disowned their club, and after significant investment from the ardent supporter base, AFC Wimbledon were founded in 2002.

Starting out in the ninth tier of English football, the club secured a ground share with Nearby Kingstonian, and their admission to the Combined Counties league for the 2002/03 season was secured.

Player trials were held on Wimbledon common, and the club’s first game, a 4-0 friendly loss to Sutton United, was struck by extraordinary scenes where supporters stormed the pitch in jubilation at still having a team to support.

Although the club failed to get promoted in their first season in the Combined Counties League, finishing third, the average home gate was a remarkable 3,000, higher than Wimbledon FC, who were plying their trade in the old First Division.

The culmination of the bad blood came in 2004 when Wimbledon FC were granted the right to rename themselves MK Dons, a decision that still rankles AFC fans today. Fans, outraged at the decision to maintain the moniker "Dons" with the new club bearing little resemblance to its original team, perpetuated a feeling of deep resentment between the sides.

Indeed, a TalkSport poll two weeks ago debating the removal of "Dons" from the Milton Keynes club’s name to facilitate a severance between the sides received 68 percent approval.

AFC Wimbledon have, in the intervening years, rocketed up the footballing pyramid, securing five promotions in nine seasons and last year reclaiming the football league status.

MK Dons, meanwhile, have stayed relatively consistent over the past decade, moving from League One to League Two and back again and strongly challenging for promotion over the past three seasons. After a ten-year hiatus and an ever-lessening class divide, the clubs don't play in consecutive football-league divisions.

The match was never going to be about the result.

Many AFC Wimbledon fans, still too bitter at the perceived injustice that was served against them, boycotted the match, and many of those who attended refused to purchase refreshments that would financially benefit MK.

The game, for the most part, was a tense, stagnant affair. Don’s attacking predilection and obvious supremacy in class were mostly stifled by an admirable Wimbledon defensive display.

It took until the brink of the halftime whistle for the deadlock to be broken, but it was shattered in some style. Former Irish international Stephen Gleeson picked up the ball fully 30 yards out, unleashing a sumptuous strike with the outside of his right foot that flew past Wimbledon keeper Neil Sullivan.

Logic, at this point, would say game over, but it seemed as if 42-year-old Sullivan, a player for the former Wimbledon, was AFC’s lucky charm, as Jack Midson scored with a powerful diving header midway through the second half.

That was how it stayed until the second minute of added time, when Dons substitute Jon Otsemobor nonchalantly swung a heel at a speculative late strike. Flicking over his head, ,evading the desperate dive of Sullivan and nestling in the top corner, it was a fluke not befitting the occasion.

Otsemobor looked for a second, struck with visible shock at what he had achieved before the stadium erupted. It was cruel for Wimbledon, but cruelty is a condition to which the FA Cup is accustomed.

In reality, however, the result would simply have been the cherry on top of a cake that AFC Wimbledon have created over the past ten years—a cake made of the sweat, tears and exertion of ten years of tumultuous emotion, which has finally paid dividends. 

The cake did not need the cherry—the cake has been made. For the fans of AFC Wimbledon that is enough.

Gut-punches.

That will be the term those in the blue and yellow of AFC Wimbledon will most use to describe the goals scored by Stephen Gleeson and Jon Ostembor.

MK Dons fans will simply remember them as the shots that beat back those who would not adapt to the future laid out before them.

The match at Stadium mk between the Dons and the Dons had been feared to occur last term as the two sides were lined up in the second round draw of the F.A. Cup

Only Wimbledon’s loss in a reply prevented it from happening last season, but a replay win this term pitted the two together at last, not to mention started a media circus that enveloped the clubs for weeks.

Those unfamiliar with the story will not understand the anguish and indemnity that League 2 outfit Wimbledon feel towards League 1 side MK Dons.

The closest comparison might be the midnight exit of the Baltimore Colts to Indianapolis and the resulting furor that the new Baltimore team, the Ravens, exhibit towards their former entity.

What is no longer in doubt is that the new Dons now have a small bit of bragging rights to hold over their phoenix club counterparts after goals near the end of both halves saw the Milton Keynes outfit advance to the third round of the F.A. Cup.

While the fans were in raucous and rancorous tones, the play on the field was relatively subdued.

Wimbledon, a point above the League 2 relegation zone, was content to let the hosts play in front and to the sides while keeping the middle congested.

The plan limited MK Dons to few chances for the first 44 minutes of play, until Gleeson hit a 30-yard rocket that broke the deadlock.

The goal changed the complexion of the match as Wimbledon were forced to go on the offensive to level the tie.

After some initial offensive movements, Wimbledon struck with a well-played one-two that saw Jack Midson bury a header past David Martin.

Cue the rapturous response and mini pitch invasion by the blue and yellow faithful.

After play was restored, the match entered the same sort of lull that was prevalent in the first half, with the only move of note by MK Dons erased by an offside call.

In the dying moments, Wimbledon nearly snatched a victory after Steven Gregory stole the ball off the MK Don defense, and only Martin’s outstretched right hand denied the Dons a moment of delirium.

It proved to be critical because of Ostembor’s winner.

A corner two minutes after the Gregory chance was barely cleared by the Wimbledon defense. The return shot of Zeli Ismail was back heeled by Ostembor over the despairing lunge of Neil Sullivan.

Cue the rapturous response and mini pitch invasion by the white, red and black supporters.

With so little time left, Wimbledon had no real chance to reply aside from a few desperate heaves at goal, and so it went that MK Dons won the first ever meeting between the sides.

It is a bitter blow to those who made the trip from Wimbledon as, perhaps more than anything else, the fans wanted the new Wimbledon to strike a blow for those who were faithful to the city and history of the club.

The club can take solace in the fact that they made life difficult for a side nearly 40 places above them in the Football League hierarchy and need to use this momentum to move away from danger near the foot of League 2.

MK Dons fans, while not as emotionally invested in the fixture as the Wimbledon faithful, will no doubt enjoy the rights that come from being the sole victors in the history between the two clubs.

It will live long in the memory but short in the present as the squad, sitting three points out of the automatic promotion spots in League 1, must press on towards the Championship.

For some fans, the match represents some form of closure over what was a schism that altered the lives of thousands.

Some will grit their teeth and march on, feeling they are still the victors in what will be a contentious debate for years and years.

Other will simply enjoy the day out and remember when they were there to watch the old and new Dons collide for the first time.