RUFC - Millers welcome AFC Wimbledon

Rotherham United entertain AFC Wimbledon on Saturday at Don Valley for the first time.

AFC Wimbledon were founded after Wimbledon FC moved to Milton Keynes and became MK Dons. Kris Stewart founded the club in June 2002, and, due to the short notice, trials were held on Wimbledon Common over three days from which the squad for that season was picked.

Their first manager was former Wimbledon player Terry Eames and, in that first season, AFC Wimbledon finished third in the Combined Counties League.

The following season the club won their first twenty-one league games and were the only club in England at any level to maintain a perfect league record for the 2003/4 season. Eames was sacked in February 2004 on disciplinary grounds with Nicky English taking over as caretaker manager and the team were promoted at the end of the season to the Isthmian League First Division.

Dave Anderson was appointed manager for the following season and the Wombles ran away with the league and, for the first time, took part in the FA Cup reaching the third qualifying round. During this season, AFC Wimbledon set a new record for the longest run of unbeaten league games at any level of senior football in the United Kingdom. They remained unbeaten for seventy-eight league matches between 22 February 2003 and 4 December 2004 when they lost two-nil to Cray Wanderer.

The 2005/6 season ended with a place in the play-offs where they lost to Fisher Athletic and the following season they lost in the play-off semi-final to Bromley.

Much of the 2006/7 season saw AFC Wimbledon under a cloud with the proposed threat of an eighteen point deduction for fielding Jermaine Darlington who hadn't been correctly registered. Eventually the deduction went down to three points and a fine of £400.

In May 2007, the club announced Terry Brown as the new manager and they achieved promotion at the end of the season to the Conference South and they won the title at the end of the 2008/9 season, finishing three points behind the play-off places their first season there.

In the 2010/11 season the club finished as league runners-up being Luton Town in the promotion play-off in a penalty shoot-out, meaning that the club began this season in the Football League.

They come into the game on Saturday in seventeenth place on the back of a two-nil loss at the Cherry Red Records Stadium to Accrington Stanley.






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