Ahead of Rovers and AFC Wimbledon’s first ever meeting on Saturday, we’ll look at the brilliant rise of the away side since their formation in 2002 over a three part series.
Later today, Rovers will welcome AFC Wimbledon to Ewood Park for the very first time, fifteen years after our visitors were formed.
In this three part series of articles, I will cover each season with a timeline & write about every season of both clubs from 2002-2017 & how we got to this point of meeting for the very first time.
The first part of this three-part series was released Thursday, with the second part released yesterday.
Today’s article will cover from the 2012/13 season until now.
2012/13
Many so-called experts tipped Rovers for an immediate return to the top flight & signing twelve new faces including the likes of Dickson Etuhu, Danny Murphy, Nuno Gomes, Leon Best & £8 million new boy Jordan Rhodes it looked like they had every intention of doing so.
Rovers were top of the league after four wins & two draws, however after a 1-2 reserve at home to Middlesbrough, the wheels started to come off. Steve Kean resigned on the eve of the away game with Charlton after claiming his position was “untenable” as it was speculated that he & the equally unpopular Shebby Singh clashed on a number of occasions. Henning Berg & Michael Appleton came & went after extremely short periods as managers & Gary Bowyer was caretaker twice, the second time was until the end of the season. Rovers ended up in seventeenth place four points above the drop zone.
In a poor season there was one highlight, becoming the first lower league team to beat Arsenal on their own patch in the FA Cup during Arsene Wenger’s tenure, Rovers progressed winning 1-0 thanks to Colin Kazim-Richards’ strike. Rovers went out to Millwall in the next round meaning a semi-final spot & a place at Wembley was not to be.
Wimbledon found their second league season more of a struggle as the team narrowly avoided relegation back to the Conference National.
Terry Brown was sacked & replaced by Neal Ardley who was a crowd favourite when he played for the original Wimbledon. In the Cup competitions they once again went out in the early stages with the most notable being a second round away tie with the club many AFC supporters blame for the death of Wimbledon F.C, Milton Keynes Dons. In a feisty first time encounter, the match finished 2-1 to MK Dons.
2013/14
After two caretaker spells in charge Gary Bowyer was unveiled as Rovers’ new manager in the hope that some much needed stability & that’s what he did. Hungry players were brought in & high earners were on their way out, while the football wasn’t pretty it was effective as Rovers made an unsuccessful bid for the play offs but ultimately falling short with an eighth place finish.
In a similar campaign to the previous one, Wimbledon once again survived relegation & exiting all three cup competitions in the first round stage.
2014/15
In a similar season to the last one Rovers once again stabilised themselves in the Championship but never really challenging for the playoffs this time.
Jordan Rhodes & Rudy Gestede formed a deadly partnership bagging 43 goals between them in all competitions as Rovers finished ninth. The FA Cup provided some real highlights with convincing wins over Premier League opposition in Swansea City & Stoke City. In the quarterfinals Rovers headed to Anfield to face Liverpool. A spirited display earned Rovers a replay at Ewood Park after a 0-0 draw, sadly the chance of playing at Wembley was not to be as the visitors struck late on to earn a 1-0 win. Beaten in the end but not without a fight & a performance to be proud of.
There was also vast improvement made by Wimbledon that season as they finished fifteenth, even though they went out in the first round of the League Cup, they faired much better in the FA Cup reaching the third round for the first time before going out 2-1 at home to Liverpool in a closely contested match. They also reached the third round of the Football League Trophy losing out to eventual winners Bristol City.
2015/16
It proved to be a tough season for Rovers as they failed to win any of their first seven games before beating Charlton Athletic 3-0 at Ewood, despite improved results afterwards Gary Bowyer was sacked & replaced a few weeks later by Paul Lambert.
Lambert’s first game was a local derby against Preston North End at Deepdale with Rovers supporters selling out the Bill Shankly Kop. Roared on by a loud travelling support, Rovers bagged the bragging rights winning 2-1. In the months that followed results were up & down with a possible relegation looming, leading to speculation on the manager’s future, and just before the final game of the season Lambert announced that he was to step down after activating a clause but not before signing off with a 3-1 win over Reading at Ewood Park.
In contrast to previous seasons, Wimbledon managed to achieve promotion to League One for the first time through the playoffs, beating Plymouth Argyle in the Final @ Wembley. Lyle Taylor topped the goalscoring charts scoring twenty three goals, including one in the 2-0 win over Plymouth in the final.
2016/17
Rovers unveiled Owen Coyle as the new manager, a move that didn’t go down well at all with supporters given his his history with our most hated rivals Burnley.
The mood only got worse on the opening day of the season as Rovers were soundly beaten 1-4 by Norwich City, they went down 0-3 the following week @ Wigan. After seven failed attempts, Rovers recorded their first league wins of the season, 4-2 at home against Rotherham United & 2-1 at Derby County.
Rovers did the double over eventual Championship winners Newcastle, as well as over Derby, but a slow start & inconsistent results meant Rovers spent most of the season in the bottom three & in mid February the club & Coyle mutually agreed to part ways even though he shouldn’t of been appointed in the first place.
Under new gaffer Tony Mowbray, results & performances improved but in the end it wasn’t enough as relegation was confirmed on the last day of the season despite a 3-1 success at Brentford.
Wimbledon’s first season in League One resulted in a fifteenth placed finish & racking up some impressive wins along the way including four goal wins over Bury (5-1) & Port Vale (4-0), a 2-1 win at The Valley over former Premier League side Charlton Athletic & a first ever win over Milton Keynes Dons.
They also suffered embarrassing losses in cup competitions including losing 1-3 at home to non-league Sutton United in an FA Cup third round replay & 1-2 at home to Brighton & Hove Albion Under 23s side in the second round (Southern Section) of the Football League Trophy.
Final thoughts
When both sides take to the field on Saturday, Rovers will have to compete for everything because like their predecessors, AFC Wimbledon not only have risen from non-league to Football League, they will make life as uncomfortable as possible as they look to do what Wimbledon FC never could do – win at Ewood Park.
1875 Podcast
Listen to episode 2 of our 1875 Podcast where we discuss the Rochdale & Scunthorpe game, and preview tomorrow’s game against AFC Wimbledon!
9yrspodcast
Listen to our thoughts on the Wimbledon audio fanzine “9yrspodcast”. We talked to them about attendances, the game and more.
Rovers Chat 
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