I can't believe how many goals that bum Glenn Murray has bagged for Crystal Palace. And that they are top of the Championship. Thought they might have been in relegation trouble this year. Who'd have thunk it?
Someone's gotta tee this one up. This one's got everything as far as a "real" rivalry goes. Should be absolutely fascinating.PVR is set.
Sportsnet World. Tomorrow 0730ET
Quote:
There is a buzzword going around AFC Wimbledon’s training ground in south-west London and everyone is saying it.'It’s important that I don’t inflame this,' says Neal Ardley, the man who played more than 300 games for Wimbledon FC and now manages their spiritual successor.
He goes on to promise he will never take a job at Milton Keynes Dons, regardless of the money offered.
'I don’t want to inflame passions beyond where they already are for Sunday,' adds Erik Samuelson, the AFC chief executive who has been at the club since the day in 2002 when they were formed.
He says he will not shake the hand of Pete Winkelman, the chairman of 'sordid' MK Dons.
'I’ve been told I shouldn’t inflame anything,' explains the club’s commercial director, Ivor Heller, one of AFC’s founder members.
He describes MK Dons as both a ‘boil that needs lancing’ and ‘rotten, rotten, rotten’, and insists he will not spend any money if he can help it at stadiummk.
And there is talk of the secret banner he is preparing to unveil.
‘We have to tone things down in the build-up,’ added Heller. ‘Obviously, I’d like to say what we really think, but I mustn’t inflame things.’
MK Dons v AFC Wimbledon. FA Cup second round. The two sides meet on Sunday for the first time and it promises to be fiery.
Sportsmail tracks down the replica FA Cup that neither 'Dons' own
In the messy aftermath of Wimbledon's controversial demise, both MK Dons and AFC Wimbledon could lay claim to the club’s history.
But what happened to the trophies? What happened to all the memorabilia?
And, most importantly, what happened to the replica of the FA Cup won in 1988 by the club nicknamed the Crazy Gang, when Lawrie Sanchez scored that header and Dave Beasant saved that penalty at Wembley?
MK Dons and AFC Wimbledon meet for the first time on Sunday in an FA Cup second-round tie so controversial some AFC fans will not travel to Milton Keynes, refusing to put money in the pockets of their rivals. Others will go wearing contamination suits.
But neither club can claim to have the historic silverware in their possession.
So what happened to it? Where has it gone? Sportsmail went on a football treasure hunt in an effort to track down the trophy and uncovered a fascinating story along the way.
When Pete Winkelman relocated Wimbledon to Milton Keynes in 2003 — the club he remains the chairman of becoming MK Dons the following year — they took the trophy with them.
But by 2008 the club felt so at home in Buckinghamshire they wanted to cut ties with their dislocated past.
They had their own identity and a history they wanted to develop with their new name. Wimbledon, for all those memorable moments, were no longer part of them.
Far from wanting to claim the 1988 FA Cup as their own, Winkelman wanted rid of it. But to whom would it be given? AFC Wimbledon? Not on your life......
VINNIE JONES would love every AFC Wimbledon player to hold his FA Cup winner’s medal tomorrow.
The notorious hardman gave his 1988 gong to the club that was born out of the ashes of his beloved Crazy Gang.
And if Jones was in the dressing room for this mother of all grudge matches at MK, he would use his medal to inspire the “Real Dons”.
He said: “My heart is with AFC. And if I was their manager, Neal Ardley, I’d fetch my FA Cup winner’s medal and let the boys hold it before kick-off.
“It would make them feel the real history of Wimbledon and what we achieved.
“I’d like them to get that engrained into their soul.”
Jones made 254 appearances for Wimbledon, including that famous day they toppled Liverpool at Wembley thanks to Lawrie Sanchez’s goal.
Jones, 47, will not be at tomorrow’s historic game because he is currently guest starring in the new Sherlock Holmes TV show Elementary alongside Lucy Liu and Jonny Lee Miller in New York.
But he will be downing a few pints at a boozer in the Big Apple that will be televising the game.
Yet Jones has called on Real Dons fans to bury the hatchet with their MK rivals and move on from the painful past.
The former midfielder said: “There are a lot of people and situations to blame more than MK Dons.
“If you look further back into it, there were a lot of things that shouldn’t shouldn’t have been done. It’s harsh, the big animosity thing. MK Dons have now given all the memorabilia and history back to AFC.
“I gave AFC my FA Cup medal because that’s where I thought it belonged. So when people go there, they can see this club has real history. The fans have done a fantastic job resurrecting the club.”
MK Dons won it late on a ridiculous goal. Probably for the best as a replay at Wimbledon would have been crazy.
Third Round Draw
1 Crystal Palace v Stoke City
2 Brighton & Hove Albion v Newcastle United
3 Tottenham Hotspur v Coventry City
4 Wigan Athletic v AFC Bournemouth
5 Fulham v Blackpool
6 Aston Villa v Ipswich Town
7 Charlton Athletic v Huddersfield Town
8 Barrow or Macclesfield Town v Cardiff City
9 Barnsley v Burnley
10 Manchester City v Watford
11 Swansea City v Arsenal
12 Leicester City v Burton Albion
13 Millwall v Preston North End
14 Cheltenham Town or Hereford United v Everton
15 Derby County v Tranmere Rovers
16 Crawley Town v Reading
17 Aldershot Town v Rotherham United or Notts County
18 Middlesbrough v Harrogate Town or Hastings United
19 Accrington Stanley or Oxford United v Sheffield United
20 Southampton v Chelsea
21 Queens Park Rangers v West Bromwich Albion
22 Peterborough United v Norwich City
23 Lincoln City or Mansfield Town v Liverpool
24 Bolton Wanderers v Sunderland
25 Nottingham Forest v Oldham Athletic
26 West Ham United v Manchester United
27 Hull City v Leyton Orient
28 Blackburn Rovers v Bristol City
29 Leeds United v Birmingham City
30 Bury or Southend United v Bradford City or Brentford
31 Luton Town v Wolverhampton Wanderers
32 Sheffield Wednesday v Milton Keynes Dons
I don't know why Chris Hughton waits so long for his subs. Simeon Jackson finally comes on with 10 minutes to go, but only after they've gone 2-1 down.
