What a difference a decade makes. At the Millennium, Wimbledon supporters were enjoying their team’s 16th successive season in the top tier of English football, having grown accustomed to their side being an established member of the Premiership elite. Yet within months there began a downward spiral, fuelled by foreign owners who were indifferent to the club’s history, poor results on the field, and the supine response of an FA Commission to a speculative offer from a new town in Buckinghamshire that left the supporters without a team to follow.

Dons fans were determined not to let a proud 104-year history die. Within just six weeks during the hot summer of 2002, AFC Wimbledon - a club the sport’s governing body had declared would be "not in the wider interests of football" - was born, and started life in the Combined Counties League, at what was then the fourth level of the non-League pyramid. The new Dons’ opening league match attracted 2,449 fans to Sandhurst Town’s basic Bottom Meadow ground, where bales of hay were imported to form improvised terracing.

After finishing third at the end of that first campaign, the Dons secured a league and cup double in 2004. The next season they won the Ryman League First Division before twice failing in the Premier Division playoffs over the following 24 months. With the arrival in 2007 of manager Terry Brown, the club regained its upward momentum and made it third time lucky in the end of season playoffs, and Brown led his side to the Conference South title at the first attempt last term.

The rise of AFC Wimbledon has brought inevitable comparisons with their illustrious predecessor’s climb from the Southern League to the old First Division during the 1970s and 80s. That success culminated in a victory over Liverpool in the 1988 FA Cup Final, prompting BBC commentator John Motson to deliver the immortal line, "The Crazy Gang have beaten the Culture Club." That unique spirit lives on in the large numbers of fans who give up their time to run the present club.

AFC Wimbledon is still wholly owned by its supporters via the one-fan-one-vote Dons Trust. It was conceived on 27 May 2002 by Ivor Heller, Trevor Williams and Marc Jones who were looking at how they could start anew while fellow campaigners were protesting in London’s Soho Square and waiting to hear whether the relocation of their club would be sanctioned. "We all felt that if the vote went against us we would have to start another club," Heller said.

Seven years on, he is the club’s commercial director. "I’ve always been just a fan, and I live and breathe every kick. But this is different to back in the 1970s and 80s. It’s part of me and I’m part of it. Everybody at the club feels the same way." The new Dons have made steady progress. While keeping an eye on any possibility of a return to Wimbledon, they are gradually redeveloping the ground their fans bought - they are determined to put down a proper foundation so that any further successes can be sustained - and the youth set-up is growing fast. But they are determined not to jeopardise their future by going full time before the finances allow it.

As AFC Wimbledon makes its Blue Square Premier bow this term, their followers are wondering what the future will hold. One of the club’s main ambitions is to regain the Football League place it believes was wrongly allowed to leave South London. Whatever unfolds, it surely cannot match the rollercoaster ride of the last remarkable decade.