Our visitors are an interesting club inasmuch that they are owned by the fans via the Dons Trust who have a controlling interest. A guy in my pub is one of the "originals" - he and his kids still travel to every match from Norfolk and he's told me a fair bit about them and their supporter's trust.
When the "old" Wimbledon relocated 60 miles north to become the MK Dons, many fans felt they no longer represented Wimbledon so in 2002 established AFC in the 9th tier. Fans not only put in money, but volunteered to do everything from building work, to cleaning, pitch maintenance, marketing, ticket sales - you name it. The fans still run the administration of the club and make all the major decisions. The club rose through the leagues dramatically finally getting promoted to League 2 in 2011/12 and they still hold the record for the longest unbeaten run in the lower leagues - 78 games!
Nowadays they have a decent stadium, a very loyal fanbase and have been in League 1 since 2016 - although they are flirting with relegation this season.
Their league position belies their ability and competitiveness. Most of the games they have lost have been by the odd goal and my mate reckons that in many of the draws they've had they've been very close to winning.
But......they've had far too many draws despite competing against the top teams. Notable results since Xmas include draws with Burton, Portsmouth, Morecambe, Shrewsbury, Sunderland and Cheltenham and they lost by a single goal to Rotherham, Charlton and their hated rivals MKD.
They will definitely compete. Mark Robinson's side tend to play either 343 or 4231 depending on the opposition but he's not averse to tweaking it.
As for us, we are back at the Unibol with a decent pitch suited to our game although I suspect it will be windy. I hope the lads are hurt by their midweek performance and turn up with the right attitude and effort to make sure they win this one against the draw specialists.
Evatt will surely be aware of the need to win this if only from a morale perspective and will probably field his strongest team so my best guess would be that we win it, but not by a big margin.
COYWM!