English football's real fairytale
Everton and Liverpool. Manchester City and Manchester United. PSV Eindhoven and Ajax. Aston Villa and decent football.
All fierce rivalries. But none come close to the hatred between AFC Wimbledon and the MK Dons. Tantalizingly, we’re 90 minutes away from the Dons derby becoming a league fixture for the first time since the infamous split and founding of AFC in 2002.
Standing in the way? Plymouth Argyle, a side that’ve survived finishing 21st twice in a row to make their fourth playoff appearance and their second in as many seasons. After falling at the semi final stage, the Pilgrims are a game away from returning to the third tier.
AFC Wimbledon
The slight favourites for the match () and odds of to go up, AFC Wimbledon are looking for their sixth promotion in 12 years. That’s an incredible record for a club that’s fourteen years old and was playing in front of smaller crowds than at the office bellend’s birthday party . Over half of their 21 victories in the regular season were by the odd goal and it was the 1-0 scoreline in the first leg against Accrington Stanley (who are they?) that was key as they drew 2-2 at the Wham stadium to go through on aggregate.
They topped the form table for the final eight games of the season which included a victory over Plymouth in Devon. 20 goals from Lyle Taylor, backed up by Ade Azeez and the world’s strongest man Mark Henry Adebayo Akinfenwa has the Dons in great shape ahead of their debut at Wembley.
Check out the latest League 2 playoff final odds over at PP.com
Plymouth Argyle
Argyle rounded off the regular season by thumping Hartlepool and dramatically sealed their place at Wembley with a last minute winner against Portsmouth as the tie looked to be heading for extra time. They, like the Dons, have struggled financially but are now rising up the Football League as they try and get back to the Championship where they were mainstays for a number of seasons.
The Pilgrims have been tight at the back, not suffering a loss by more than the single goal all season in the league and haven’t been too shabby up the other end either, averaging 1.57 goals per game. While we’re still not sure how someone scores .57 of a goal we still tip our hats to them. As do our traders who have Derek Adams’ side as to win the match and to go up.
Nothing against Plymouth but we think a lot of football fans will want to see AFC Wimbledon win this game. Not only for the pure amazingness of six promotions in 12 years but for the reignition of the feud with the MK Dons.
Although, seeing the reaction of sure to be Sky pundit Ian Holloway could be interesting given the less than acrimonious circumstances in which he left Plymouth a decade ago.
- Plymouth have won the only League Two final they’ve appeared in – back in 1996 when they beat Darlington 1-0
- 20 of the 26 League Two playoffs final have been won by the team that’ve scored first
- The biggest winning in a League Two playoff final is three goals
An AFC Wimbledon win with both teams to score seems to be the value bet at odds of although if you’re a little braver back the scoreline of 2-1 to AFC Wimbledon at odds of