‘Crazy Gang’ final ’88: ‘The beginning of the end’

It was the fairytale end to a journey that had taken Wimbledon FC from non-league football to the very top of the English game, as the famous “Crazy Gang” beat Liverpool at Wembley to lift the FA Cup in 1988.

Lawrie Sanchez’s 37th-minute winner was all that separated the teams, while man of the match Dave Beasant saved a John Aldridge penalty as the Wombles sealed a legendary 1-0 win.

A long time has passed since that day, Wimbledon FC has long since gone.

But on Monday AFC Wimbledon head to Wembley to face Walsall for a spot in League One and their own place in history.

“It kind of put everyone on the stage and I think the success that we had that day unfortunately was the beginning of the end, because a lot of people started to think ‘I could do with a little bit of that in my team’,” Beasant told BBC Sport.

Exactly 12 years after that day, Wimbledon were relegated from the Premier League.

The following year, a move to Milton Keynes was announced and that end eventually became a reality in 2003.

That 1988 final was the pinnacle of a meteoric rise for the club, who had been playing non-league football in the Southern League just 11 years before.

Beasant joined the Dons in 1979 from London Spartan League side Edgware after the club had been promoted to the old Third Division – now League One.

After a rollercoaster of two relegations and four promotions in seven seasons, Wimbledon reached the First Division to compete with the giants of English football.

It all culminated in that day at Wembley and what would turn out to be Beasant’s final game for the club, as he joined Newcastle United that summer.

“It was a defining moment in my career that, first and foremost to win a trophy, and [winning the] FA Cup final with Wimbledon was something I never ever dreamed I’d be capable of doing,” he said.

“I was first to leave and then a few others followed, people started to pick Wimbledon apart.

“It was a great day and if you’re going to bow out at a club that I’d been at for nine years, I can’t think of a better place than here at Wembley and winning the FA Cup.”

AFC Wimbledon travel to Wembley to face Walsall on Monday following a 2-0 aggregate victory over Notts County, reaching the final with a 1-0 victory at their own Cherry Red Records Stadium, just a short distance from the old club’s original Plough Lane home.

It is their second trip to the national stadium, nine years after the first – a 2-0 win over Plymouth Argyle in the League Two play-off final.

“It was huge – the crowd, the roar, playing in front of I think it was 66,000 on that day,” current club captain Jake Reeves, who played that day, told BBC Radio London.

Goals from Lyle Taylor and Adebayo Akinfenwa secured the win for Neal Ardley’s side.

This time round it will be Johnnie Jackson in the hot seat.

The former Charlton Athletic defender said his biggest regret was never stepping out under the arch as a player himself.

“I grew up [in] maybe one of the last generations loving the [FA] Cup final. I went to a lot of cup finals when I was younger watching Arsenal and it was always my dream to play there and I never got the opportunity,” he said.

“Winning it as a manager would would top that [winning as a coach at Charlton in 2019] and probably be the highlight of my whole career.”

Barry Fuller was the captain who lifted the trophy in 2016.

AFC Wimbledon have since made an emotional return to Plough Lane and Reeves said he hopes this current side can create their own piece of history at the club.

“You see all the photos from that day printed up around the stadium and around the ground. Obviously I know if I get to lift the trophy then those memories will live long,” he said.

Beasant added: “I looked back at what we achieved [going] from non-league football to the first division and winning the FA Cup 11 years later, that was an unbelievable journey and I never thought that would be emulated.

“But what [AFC] Wimbledon have done, starting even lower down the system and getting, first and foremost, league football again, was an achievement that kind of matched what we done but in a different dimension.

“They’re very ambitious, the club is fan-owned so it’s for everyone. I think they’ve done a more than superb job.”