The Story of MK Dons 2004 - 2010

Article submitted by MKDSA member David Walmsley.

As we all know, MK Dons are the legal continuation of Wimbledon FC, who were formed in 1889 (as Wimbledon Old Central Football Club) and played most famously at Plough Lane in Merton Borough Council from September 1912 to May 1991 when the club moved their first team home matches to Selhurst Park as part of a groundshare agreement with Crystal Palace, following the publication of the Taylor Report on football ground safety.

Briefly, they played at Selhurst Park until their move to Milton Keynes in September 2003.  Following severe financial problems the club went into administration in June 2003 and the following June the club was rescued by Inter MK Ltd, led by Pete Winkelman. The name change to MK Dons followed on 1st July.  This was to reflect the move to their new home, whilst still paying respect to the heritage of the Dons.

Wimbledon had, of course, been trying to move home prior to the rescue package.  The Club had once before, in 1997, under Sam Hammam’s chairmanship, flirted with a possibility of relocation considerably farther afield than Milton Keynes, namely Dublin.  The plan floundered when the Football Association of Ireland blocked it, but the Norwegians who invested in the Club at that time were led to believe (rightly or wrongly) that the English football authorities would not pose a problem.

Then in August 2000 Pete Winkelman of the Milton Keynes Stadium Consortium (MKSC) approached Charles Koppel, who was then Chairman of Wimbledon FC.  MKSC were a group of local business people who together with stakeholders and community groups were working to secure the provision of professional football in Milton Keynes.  MKSC were building a major development in the Denbigh area of Milton Keynes, which is near Bletchley.  Their proposals included a modern state of the art, 28,000 all-seater stadium.  Pete Winkelman told Mr Koppel that Milton Keynes merited having a football club and that Milton Keynes, WFC and football in general would benefit from the move. It had been both a preoccupation and a priority for Mr Koppel to find the Club a home stadium since he arrived in April 2000.

On 4th January 2001, Wimbledon first announced that they were considering a move to Milton Keynes. At a Board Meeting in July 2001, after much discussion, it was resolved that the Club should indeed pursue the Milton Keynes option and agree the Heads of Terms. Most Board members felt the Club had no choice. In a letter of 2nd August 2001 to the Chief Executive of the Football League at the time, Charles Koppel wrote “The move to Milton Keynes represents the only realistic solution for Wimbledon Football Club, which is immediate and welcoming”. 

On the financial front it is interesting to read the views of the appointed accountants Deloitte & Touche, who are widely regarded to be among the foremost experts in the field of football club finance.  “The move to Milton Keynes is WFC's last chance of financial survival. If it is allowed to move it may then look with some optimism at its future and is expected to develop to its true potential and compete equally with other clubs of its standing and with the hope of promotion and further success. If it is not it will not simply drop down the divisions it will go into liquidation. The shareholders would not provide further finance, and the Directors would be forced to put WFC into an insolvency procedure. Since there are no assets to fund an administration the Club would go into immediate liquidation. No-one would be likely to fund the heavy losses with no prospect of recovering any financial outlay and so it is highly unlikely that the Club would be taken over. Infinitely more harm would be caused to football if WFC went out of business. Everyone would suffer, most of all WFC's true fans. It would be replaced in Football League Division 1 by a different team altogether.”

In a letter dated 2 August 2001 WFC therefore made a formal application for the Football League’s approval of the move to Milton Keynes. The Football League Board met on 16 August 2001 and unanimously rejected WFC’s application.  However, the Club, not to be deterred, wrote a letter to the Board of the Football League reminding them of their basic right to a fair and impartial hearing, based on fact. The Board met on 17 April 2002 to reconsider the decision concerning WFC’s application to relocate. On 2 May 2002 the FA appointed an Independent Commission of Inquiry, comprising three members, to review the case.  On 28 May 2002, The Independent Commission came to a decision, approving the move with the words, “Our decision is that, in light of its exceptional circumstances, WFC should be given approval to relocate to Milton Keynes.” Note that the words used were “WFC should be given approval to relocate” and not “WFC should be relocated to Milton Keynes”. In other words, Wimbledon FC were the motivating force. 

In the Commission’s report they stated: “We do not believe, with all due respect, that the Club’s links with the community around the Plough Lane site or in Merton are so profound, or the roots go so deep, that they will not survive a necessary transplant to ensure WFC’s survival. What is unusual about WFC fans is that they do not seem to come from a single geographical area. Indeed, the vast majority of WFC fans do not live in Merton or Wimbledon. 20% of current season ticket holders live in Merton and 10% in Wimbledon. We do not accept that WFC will die if the Club relocates. The Club has been in Croydon for 11 years (almost half its Football League history). There is no stadium which is a focus for the community in Merton, and has not been for 11 years.”

2002 - 2003

Wimbledon had now achieved their aim and the wheels were set in motion. There were various delays throughout the year, however, and The Dons therefore started the new season at Selhurst Park on 10th August 2002 in front of a crowd of 2,476 in the Championship. The Manager at that time was Stuart Murdoch, who had been promoted from goalkeeping coach in June 2002, replacing Terry Burton who was sacked after narrowly missing the play offs twice in a row. 

As attendances plummeted, due in no small part to the recent formation of AFC Wimbledon in retaliation for the re-locating of WFC, the Dons finished the season in 10th position. Also, owing to the severe financial problems, the club finally went into administration on 6 June 2003. In the meantime, Milton Keynes were converting their National Hockey Stadium for football use in preparation for the anticipated move.

2003 - 2004

Initially, Wimbledon started the new season at Selhurst Park against Crew Alexander, winning 3-1 in front of 1,145 supporters.  That was their last win at Selhurst Park before their move to Milton Keynes. On 27 September at the National Hockey Stadium, Wimbledon played their first game in Milton Keynes against Burnley, with a rousing comeback from 2-0 down to claim a 2-2 draw; Dean Holdsworth scoring the first goal for the Dons in Milton Keynes.  This was in the Championship, of course. The attendance for that first match was 6,789, which was incredible in the circumstances, as the attendance at the last Wimbledon ‘home’ game at Selhurst Park had been 1,054, against Wigan.  However, it had been a miserable season and Wimbledon ended up at the bottom of the Championship, 23 points from safety, and were relegated to League One.  During this period Inter MK had been preparing their bid for a takeover of Wimbledon and on 18 March 2004 the bid was accepted by the club’s Creditors and the Dons were brought out of administration.

2004 - 2005

At the beginning of the 2004/5 season, the club was still managed by Stuart Murdoch, but they made a poor start and in November, Murdoch was fired. Jimmy Gilligan, the Assistant Manager held the reins for a few weeks until, in December, Danny Wilson (left), previously at Bristol City, was appointed as the new manager of MK Dons, the change of name and ownership having taken place over the summer following the rescue by InterMK as described previously. 

As usual, under new management things began to improve for a while but things eventually went downhill and they finished 5th from bottom, escaping relegation only by virtue of Wrexham having had 10 points deducted for being in administration, and by a marginally better goal difference than Torquay.

2005 - 2006

There was to be no such fortune for Wilson this season when, following further dismal results, the Dons were relegated to Division 2. They had one of the worst away records in the division, losing 13 games, a tally only equalled by Yeovil.  Following this unacceptable showing, Danny Wilson was also shown the door on 21st June 2006.

Enter Martin Allen, of the well known footballing family, who came from Brentford, having resigned at the end of May following them narrowly missing out on promotion in the 1st Division Play Off Semi Final in 2005. It is interesting to note that one of Brentford’s previous managers and also Chairman, was Ron Noades, who figures regularly in Wimbledon FC’s early attempts to move to Milton Keynes. In 1980/81 he (Ron Noades) claimed that the Borough of Merton did not want the club and that he was involved in talks to take Wimbledon to Milton Keynes. He and three other directors, Jimmy Rose, Bernie Coleman and Sam Hammam, were voted onto the board of Milton Keynes City FC. Noades had stated there was no future for Wimbledon FC at Plough Lane.

2006 -2007

During the 2006/7 season things looked a lot better under Allen and the Dons looked to be automatic promotion candidates for most of the season. However in the event, they finished 4th and entered another Play Off battle. Unfortunately, they lost 1-2 to Shrewsbury, at home, the only goal being scored by Keith Andrews, having held them to a 0-0 draw at Gay Meadow. Andrews had been had brought in by Allen from Hull City at the start of the campaign.  During the summer of 2007, Allen was offered the job as Leicester City manager, which he took, but only lasted 5 games before he was sacked.

2007 - 2008

In the summer of 2007 the Dons’ new stadium was rapidly coming to completion, or as complete as it was likely to be for the next few seasons. Only the lower tier would be seated for the present, which would still provide enough room for 22,000 supporters, more than enough until they got into the Championship. Apart from the new ground, the Dons also had the little matter of finding a new manager again and to everyone’s surprise, Pete Winkeman appointed the up and coming new manager Paul Ince, ironically a former team mate of Keith Andrews whilst at Wolves. Ince had started his coaching career at Swindon and then in 2006 became Player/Manager at struggling Macclesfield at the bottom of League 2, seven points adrift of their nearest rival. They did, however, manage to avoid relegation on the last day of the season. When Ince joined the Dons on 25th June 2007, he brought along Ray Mathias, experienced player and coach who was his assistant at Macclesfield.

So the 2007/8 season was started with renewed optimism with a new stadium and a new manager.  And not without good reason. They played their first competitive game at stadiummk on 11th August against Bury, with Keith Andrews scoring the first goal at the new stadium.  Despite that though, the Dons lost the match 1-2 in front of a crowd of 7,740.  B y  the end of September, however, they were top of Division 2 and stayed there more or less for the remainder of the season. Promotion was assured on 19th April 2008 when they came from behind twice to beat Stockport 3-2 at Edgeley Park, ending the Hatters' 10-game unbeaten run in the process.  

The Championship was finally secured with a 2-1 win away at Bradford City, with goals by Jude Stirling and Lloyd Dyer, his last for the club, moving to promoted Leicester on 1st July.  This wasn’t all of course, as in the meantime the Dons had been challenging for the Johnstones’ Paint Trophy.  After knocking out Peterborough, Bournemouth, Gillingham and Swansea, they found themselves at Wembley on Sunday 30th March 2008 facing Grimsby in the Final.  In front of 56,618 supporters, 33,000 of whom were Dons fans, the Dons came out worthy winners with goals in the last 16 minutes from Keith Andrews, with a penalty, and Sean O’Hanlon heading in the winner from a Colin Cameron corner.

The game wasn’t without its heart stopping moments though as Willy Gueret gave away a penalty in the 18th minute, but true to form, he made a great save and kept the Dons in the game. It was Willy’s 5th penalty save of the campaign, the best one being against Swansea in the semi-final penalty shoot out, which got them to the final. All in all, an excellent season, and one that would not be easily repeated.

MK Dons - Trophy Champions 2008

2008 - 2009

The gloss was taken off the euphoria, however, when on 22nd June 2008, Paul Ince was offered the Manager’s job at Blackburn Rovers, Mark Hughes having moved to greener pastures at Manchester City. This was not to be a happy experience for Ince however, as he was sacked in December after winning only 3 games in 17.  Ince however, had taken the Dons captain Keith Andrews, with him to Blackburn and he has been quite successful there.  Also, while at Blackburn, Ince appointed the ex Liverpool Youth Academy Coach, Karl Robinson, as his assistant, having met him at the Academy during his son, Thomas’s, time there. And so on to season 2008/9, managerless once again and without our 2nd & 3rd highest goalscorers for the season, Andrews and Lloyd Dyer. The leading scorer Mark Wright was to leave at the end of this season. 

Everyone was waiting with bated breath to see which rabbit Pete Winkelman would pull out of the hat this time. Would he go for experience this time or another ‘name’? Of course it had to be a big name, but we weren’t expecting someone who hadn’t managed before. However such was the case with Roberto Di Matteo, the Swiss born Italian and former Chelsea legend. Roberto Di Matteo.  Scorer of the fastest goal ever scored at a Wembley Cup Final (42 secs.) until Louis Saha broke the record in 2009 against Chelsea (25 secs). Although Di Matteo had no managerial experience he had, in fact, been taking his UEFA coaching licences while still playing, completing his "B" licence during his time with Chelsea. 

Despite his lack of experience, however, the Dons had a reasonably good season, with some outstanding results, such as the 4-0 battering of Millwall at the New Den, the 5-3 defeat of Cheltenham, away again, and the 6-2 demolition of Oldham at stadium:mk. Having said that, the Dons had a lean spell in March and ended the season in the Play Offs once again, repeating the failure to achieve promotion against a Scunthorpe side who only just made the Play Offs and were 11 points behind the Dons. The second leg went to penalties and Di Matteo’s old mate Tore Andre Flo hit the crossbar for the losing penalty. The Dons played some good football during this season but some of Di Matteo’s team selection decisions left a good number of fans frustrated. Overall, though, the Dons performances during the season were enough to get Di Matteo noticed and once again the cheque books were out.  This time it was West Bromwich Albion who came calling, having been relegated back to the Championship and also losing their Manager, Tony Mowbray. So, on 30th June 2009 the Dons were without a manager once again.

2009 - 2010

While everyone was speculating on who the next manager would be, it hadn’t escaped their attention that Paul Ince, their most successful manager, was now on the market again having been relieved of his duties at Blackburn following a run of dismal results back in December. He had blamed his failure on “a lack of financial backing” despite spending over £10 million on new players. This excuse would be revisited again in the not too distant future. There seemed to be a large movement of fans who wanted Ince back, in the hope of reigniting the glory times, and they got their wish when Pete Winkelman welcomed him back, to finish as Ince put it, “some unfinished business”.  

So began the 2009/10 season, full of optimism again for some, but not all. Alas, having lost 2 of their 3 best goalscorers last season and their highest goalscorer of this particular season, Mark Wright, who left for Brighton in June 2009, it was never going to be easy to repeat the success of 2 seasons ago. And so it turned out, what with numerous injuries and an ever changing defence, who hardly had any time to get to know each other; it was a difficult season and they ended up finishing 12th. However, this was not before Ince had announced on April 16th that he planned to leave the club after the last match of the season. He said, “Having discussed with the chairman the plans for next season, I don’t feel it will be possible to take the team forward as I would have liked due to the budget cutbacks that he (Pete Winkelman, the Dons chairman) is going to have to make.”  He said. “I have enjoyed my time and will take some great memories from both spells here.” 

For the remaining 4 games Karl Robinson took over team affairs, Ince having now left, although he was officially still manager. It was believed this was to allow him to ‘serve’ four of his five match touchline ban before he moved to another club, who it is presumed wouldn’t take too kindly to him spending the first five games watching from the stands.  Following Karl Robinson’s temporary appointment, there was a marked improvement in the team’s performance if not the results.  The team seemed to play with more energy and desire, which was encouraging for the future.  Over the last few games of the season, speculation was rife as to who would be the next ‘big name’ to take over at the helm. Despite the large number of applicants, including some respected names, Pete Winkelman finally plumped for stability rather than change, and appointed Ince’s assistant, Karl Robinson, as manager on a 12-month contract.  This appointment made him the youngest manager in the Football League, at 29 years of age.

Karl was widely respected within the game as one of the country's brightest up-and-coming coaches. He worked for eight years in the Liverpool Academy under Anfield legend, Steve Heighway, earning his UEFA B and A coaching qualifications during his time with the Premier League club, and his Pro Licence during the summer of 2010. When Ince departed for Blackburn in the summer of 2008, Karl was among the staff to join him, again as first team coach. Following Ince's departure later that season, new boss Sam Allardyce was quick to secure Robinson's immediate future.  Having looked like potential relegation candidates for long periods, Blackburn secured a 15th-placed finish. Alongside Karl, at stadium:mk, the vastly experienced former England coach John Gorman was appointed as Assistant Manager, with Alex Rae retaining his position as first team coach. Gorman had joined the coaching team just before the last game at Walsall and would add an experienced head to the team.