The MK Dons started out life as WIMBLEDON OLD CENTRALS which was founded in 1889. They became WIMBLEDON FC soon after in 1905, playing at PLOUGH LANE. It was not until 1977 that the Dons were actually elected to the football league. Within 9 years, they were playing 1st Division football against the likes of Manchester United. It was an amazing rags to riches story. The fairytale continued when, in 1988, Wimbledon FC caused one of the major upsets in the history of the FA Cup by reaching the final and beating hot favourites Liverpool 1-0. Lawrie Sanchez was the man of the moment when his header from Dennis Wise's corner beat Bruce Grobellar. In that same match, Dons keeper Dave Beasant made history by being the first keeper to save a penalty in an FA Cup Final. In 1992, The Dons left Plough Lane, a ground they had used for almost 90 years. They moved in with Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park where they played their home fixtures for 10 years. The Dons stayed in the top flight until 2000. It went down to the final day of the season. The Dons lost to Southampton and Bradford had a surprise win over Liverpool, which kept them out and sent us down to Division 1. Over the next few years, there was much uncertainty. The attendances were low, and there was rising speculation that the team would uproot and move to another location. Dublin, Belfast, and Cardiff had all be rumoured to be viable options. In 2002, the club were granted a move to Milton Keynes. In 2003 they went into administration and finally made the move to Milton Keynes, a historic moment for it's new set of fans. For the first season in Milton Keynes, the Dons continued to be called Wimbledon FC and wore the traditional blue and yellow kit. From 2004 onwards, the club was to be called Milton Keynes Dons. The Dons had a new set of colours and the move was complete. However, while all this was going on, another club in Wimbledon called AFC Wimbledon, had adopted the local fans who had been let down by the move to Milton Keynes. Much debate arose about where the honours that Wimbledon FC received should be held. AFC Wimbledon fans believe that honours such as the FA Cup trophy should be held in Merton. The changes off the pitch were being sorted, but there were also problems on the pitch. In their 1st season as MK Dons, they narrowly avoided relegation by beating Tranmere 2-1 while Torquay lost at Colchester. Gareth Edds was the hero of the moment, scoring 2 sensational goals. Hopes were high for the 2005/2006 season after such a dramatic escape. There was much belief that the squad was good enough to be challenging for promotion. Work had also begun on a fantastic new 25,000 seater stadium, which sparked further optimism. However, a poor early start to the season left us at the foot of the division and only an amazing end of season run gave hope of survivial. On the last game of the season, the Dons need ed to beat Rotherham to stay up, but a 0-0 was not enough and a 2nd relegation in 3 seasons saw us move down to League 2. Chairman Pete Winkelman decided to make changes. Manager Danny Wilson left the club and Martin Allen was appointed in his place. Funds were made available to boost the squad and to give hope of promotion to a higher league which was more fitting to the specatular stadium that was reaching completion. It has been a topsy-turvy life for the MK Dons, with amazing highs in the 80s to some of the lowest moments in 2002 and 2003.
History
