A brief history of AFC Wimbledon
The club was founded 16 years ago in a pub.
This has been the toughest season yet in AFC Wimbledon’s still young history, but Saturday’s FA Cup upset over West Ham added another achievement to an already impressive list.
Here Press Association Sport charts the rapid rise of a club founded just 16 years ago following the highly controversial move to allow the original Dons to leave home.
May 28, 2002 – On May 28, the day that the FA accepted the decision of a three-man independent panel to approve Wimbledon’s relocation to Milton Keynes, fans met in the Fox and Grapes pub in Wimbledon Common and the idea to form a new club was born. After they were accepted into the Combined Counties League, 230 hopefuls showed up at open trials on Wimbledon Common. Their first ever match, a 4-0 friendly loss to Sutton, attracted 4,657 fans.
May 2003 – Narrowly missed out on promotion as a run of 11 straight wins to end the season saw them finish in third place.
May 2005 – Won the Ryman League First Division South under new manager Dave Anderson, who extended their unbeaten league run to 78 matches before defeat to Cray Wanderers on December 4, 2004.
May 2011 – Beat Luton 4-3 on penalties in the Conference play-offs, putting them in the Football League after five promotions in nine years of existence.
August 2, 2014 – Beat MK Dons 3-1 in the League Cup.
March 14, 2017 – The first league meeting with MK Dons went AFC Wimbledon’s way as they won 2-0 at Kingsmeadow.
November 12, 2018 – Neal Ardley was sacked after losing 12 of the first 17 games of the season.
