AFC Wimbledon

In the final part of our countdown to the League One season, we recall a memorable away day from 2018.

23. Wigan Athletic

After occasional meetings during the Dons’ first Football League adventure, Neal Ardley’s men made their first visit to the DW stadium in April 2018 looking to be party-poopers.

Saturday 28th April 2018: League One

Wigan Athletic (0) 1 Jacobs 69

AFC Wimbledon (1) 1 Pigott 24

On the day Milton Keynes were relegated two years ago, the Dons moved within a point of securing their own League One safety after a hard-fought draw at title-chasing Wigan Athletic. Having been staring down the barrel after a home defeat at the hands of Fleetwood in the last gamey of the previous month, Neal Ardley’s men had battled bravely to take eight points from their four games in April prior to their visit to the DW stadium.

With the large crowd hoping to see the Latics crowned champions, the visitors shocked the home fans by taking the lead after 24 minutes through Joe Pigott, who took delivery of a lovely pass from Lyle Taylor before slipping the ball past Christian Walton. It was almost 2-0 within four minutes, when Walton had to pull off a fabulous save to deny Dean Parrett. It took until 20 minutes from time for Wigan to level the scores when Michael Jacobs scored with a shot that took a slight deflection.

"The lads have come together and fought for their lives,” Ardley commented. “They have put in five high performance games and we have two more to go. I would like to think that, certainly in the last five games, they have looked at that team and have been proud of what they've seen.” On the following Tuesday, the Dons drew at Doncaster to guarantee another League One season.

AFC Wimbledon: Long, Fuller, Oshilaja, Charles, Kennedy, Parrett, Forrester, Meades (Egan 80), Barcham (Appiah 80), Taylor (Kaja 80), Pigott.

Dons v Latics (1975 to 2018)

This series is written by Stephen Crabtree, the editor of the Historical Don. To sample a copy contact him at stephecrab@aol.com .