For some AFC Wimbledon fans, the prospect of facing MK Dons at Plough Lane on Saturday is the stuff of nightmares.
Their team is in free-fall as they prepare to face their most bitter rivals without a win in 22 matches in League One, 22nd in the table and spiralling towards relegation.
Wimbledon are four points from safety with just five matches to play. The original ‘phoenix’ club needs another miracle to avoid a return to League Two.
MK Dons, on the other hand, arrive at Plough Lane in rude health and sit second, unbeaten in their last 18 matches and chasing automatic promotion. Should they hammer a nail in Wimbledon’s coffin, then it would be a painful experience.
Wimbledon’s predicament is the result of a disastrous run since early December.
The mood around the club at the start of the season was high, mainly because they were finally back at their spiritual home and there was optimism around then-head coach Mark Robinson. The Wimbledon fan, who originally joined the Dons in 2004, had been handed the job permanently last February and was in charge of a team playing attractive football and filled with players he had worked with previously in the academy.
Wimbledon were unbeaten in five games before a Covid-enforced three-week break in December disrupted their rhythm — and it has been all downhill since then.
A disastrous run of 12 defeats and nine draws from 21 matches has left them in a relegation dogfight. The sale of star striker Ollie Palmer in January did not help. Wrexham paid a club-record £300,000 for the 30-year-old and significantly increased his salary. Wimbledon were reluctant to sell, but that level of fee is not to be sniffed at in League One, not least when you have a £4.6million bridging loan for a £32m stadium to refinance in April.
The Dons have managed just 11 goals in 16 games since his departure. Confidence has been an issue, particularly when it has come to securing results from winning positions, and some of that could be put down to the lack of experience in the squad.
The problems ultimately cost Robinson his job when he was sacked on March 28. Just five days earlier, he had been publicly backed by the club, which showed reluctance to part ways with him. Robinson remains a huge supporter and even went to Tuesday’s 1-1 draw with Charlton as a fan.
Mark Bowen, the former Reading manager and long-time assistant to Mark Hughes, has since taken over, but there is a feeling it has all come too late to save them.
Their decline points to wider questions about whether more football expertise is needed at a club that has been fan-owned since its rebirth in 2002.
No one can argue with the way Wimbledon fans have saved their club and crowd-funded a move back to Plough Lane. Their bond schemes, the latest of which raised £3.4m, are the envy of many and executives at Championship clubs have asked how they have pulled it off.
The new stadium boasts weekly attendances of around 7,500, while games can draw 600 people for hospitality, which should help Wimbledon make an operating profit this season. That success, coupled with the club’s work in the community, is undeniable, but the implementation of a technical director could be the missing link to on-field success.
Others argue, too, that outside investment is needed, but such an idea is a non-starter for many fans old enough to remember the original Wimbledon being controversially relocated to Milton Keynes. Local businessman Nick Robinson invested in the club in 2020, but he is a lifelong fan.
There is also the argument about what constitutes success for Wimbledon. For some fans, success is simply the fact they have a team to watch every week. Others, though, have ambitions about moving up the divisions.
Whatever the outcome this season, the summer will be key. There will be the uncertainty that comes with relegation should they go down. There will be questions over Bowen, the squad and the vacant position of chief executive, previously held by Joe Palmer before he stepped down in February, that needs to be filled.
Palmer played a key role in getting Wimbledon back to Plough Lane and his successor must look to drive the club forward following a period of reflection on the events of this season.
