“It was a solution that came up. In an ideal world it wouldn’t have happened, but we don’t live in an ideal world.”
Wimbledon FC’s highly controversial move to Milton Keynes more than 20 years ago remains one of the most taboo subjects in English football.
It is one Milton Keynes Dons fan Ryan remembers well. He had grown up supporting the Wombles and was their mascot in his second game at Plough Lane.
He was at Wembley to see the famous “Crazy Gang” lift the FA Cup in 1988 – still his greatest football memory – and his mum had been at school with club legend Dave Bassett.
He adored football and loved Wimbledon FC.
Unlike the majority of supporters who now cheer on AFC Wimbledon, the phoenix club formed in place of the original, Ryan was part of a small group who bought into the vision sold by Pete Winkelman and his consortium and followed the club to its new home in Milton Keynes.
“There needs to be an acceptance this has happened now,” Ryan says, his unwillingness to disclose his full name indicative of the acrimony that still exists between the clubs.
“It pains me to say it but if both clubs are successful then everyone can claim something good came out of the move.”
The two sides meet at Stadium MK this weekend in the first round of the FA Cup.
‘The club died when it left the Premier League’
It is not a fixture Ryan looks forward to or one he believes holds much significance now.
“In truth, the club I supported as a boy won’t be either team stepping out on Sunday,” he says.
“The club, in essence, died when it left the Premier League [in May 2000].”
It has been 12 years since the first-ever meeting between MK Dons and AFC Wimbledon in the FA Cup, which MK Dons won 2-1.
There have been 15 more matches between the two clubs, with MK Dons winning eight times to AFC Wimbledon’s four victories, and four draws.
AFC Wimbledon sealed a convincing 3-0 win when the two sides met in their League Two fixture at Plough Lane in September.
They are separated by two points and five places in the table, although AFC Wimbledon have three games in hand following match postponements due to flooding at Plough Lane.
“Rivalries are rivalries. There’s a uniqueness to this one that you won’t find anywhere else in the world of football,” says BBC Three Counties Radio presenter Luke Ashmead, who was previously MK Dons reporter and commentator.
“It’s just tempered hatred between the two clubs. Both sets of fans have to tolerate it, there’s no excitement there and it’s not a fun rivalry.”
‘On one hand I can’t stand them, on the other they’re nothing’
Feelings among the AFC Wimbledon fanbase towards these fixtures are mixed.
Some will boycott them altogether, others will attend home and away, and a large section will still not acknowledge the existence of MK Dons.
“On the one hand I can’t stand they exist, on the other they’re nothing to us,” says Graham Stacey, a lifelong fan who supports AFC Wimbledon.
“People are very sensitive about the word ‘rivalry’. It’s certainly not a derby, hearing people call it that makes me feel a little sick.”
To this day there are several areas of contention.
Living in Buckinghamshire, Ryan says he chose MK Dons because he believed the league position and the players were the two key assets involved in the drawn-out saga that led to the move.
Stacey argues they did not earn that league position, whereas AFC Wimbledon started again and rose up through the football pyramid to get to the English Football League.
‘They have no moral right to call themselves Dons’
Then there is the name, Dons – the original Wimbledon FC’s nickname. Now part of MK’s official name, as well as being used by the group of fan owners of AFC Wimbledon – The Dons Trust.
The EFL charged AFC Wimbledon in 2017 for not acknowledging the Dons part of MK Dons’ name on their scoreboard, and leaving their visitors’ name off the cover of the matchday programme, when they hosted them in a League One match at Kingsmeadow. But those charges were eventually dropped.
“There’s a train of thought that keeping the name reminds everyone of how they came about and is a mark of shame,” Stacey, who was on the Dons Trust board from 2019 to 2022, says.
“But for me, they should drop the Dons as soon as possible, they have no moral right to it. And while removing the name won’t make it right, it’s probably the least they could do.”
Stacey chooses not to boycott home games against MK Dons, though he will not be at Stadium MK on Sunday.
He admits the underlying friction at the games adds an edge to the occasions.
“It’s a charged atmosphere. They surely can’t enjoy coming here,” he adds.
“I don’t like the fact we have to host them. It’s a bit different at theirs, it’s probably the only game of the year when there is an atmosphere there.
“I wouldn’t want to set foot in their ground personally.”
‘I can’t watch them at Plough Lane and I’ll never go away’
Wimbledon FC moved out of their old Plough Lane home in 1991, becoming tenants of Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park for more than a decade.
In 2020, things came full circle for AFC Wimbledon as they moved into their new purpose-built Cherry Red Records Stadium in Plough Lane, down the road from the original site.
Supporter Ray Armfield volunteers his time by conducting stadium tours at the club and he is one who chooses not to attend games when MK Dons are in town.
“I always said I would never go there [to Stadium MK] but when the home games came around in the league at Kingsmeadow I did go, I’ve seen us win and lose against them,” he says.
“I don’t know what it is about Plough Lane but I can’t go and watch them there, and I definitely won’t go [to the] away [games].”
His son Peter does attend the games and has been away to Stadium MK.
‘It’s a rivalry both clubs could do without’
Sunday’s game will not be televised and, like many others, Graham Stacey, Ray Armfield and Ryan are not planning on attending, unless the latter makes a late decision to go after playing golf on the morning of the game.
The friends he plays golf with were all originally Wimbledon FC fans who are now supporting MK Dons.
“I love the FA Cup and of course I want us to win but we could be playing against anyone, I’m not bothered that we’re playing AFC Wimbledon,” Ryan says.
“It always will be a rivalry but I think both clubs could do without it really.
“This one has histrionics but I do think [in time] it will subside.”
For AFC Wimbledon’s supporters the game will remain a cruel reminder of the saga that led to the club being taken from their community and moved 60 miles away.
“It should never happen again,” Stacey says.
“Now we own our club and a stadium which we’ve built, so we have made good things happen since.
“But the fact we’ve been able to do all this, I think, proves all the more that it shouldn’t have happened in the first place.”
