Dons skipper eyes promotion at 'spiritual' home

AFC Wimbledon captain Jake Reeves has made 176 EFL appearances across three spells at the club

"For the club to be back in its spiritual home, to be able to do anything positive at that ground would be insane. It would be unbelievable. The events that happened afterward would be remembered and talked about for many, many years," said Jake Reeves.

Few current players, if any, know AFC Wimbledon better than the midfielder.

The skipper has made 176 English Football League appearances across three stints with the south London club.

Nine years ago, he was part of the Wombles team that beat Plymouth Argyle 2-0 in front of more than 55,000 people at Wembley to earn promotion to League One for the first time in the club's history.

Back then, the team played at Kingsmeadow in Kingston-Upon-Thames. In 2020, they returned to Plough Lane and a purpose-built stadium just down the road from their former ground.

Reeves, 31, says it would be "unbelievable" to win promotion again at their "spiritual home" and more meaningful than previous promotions at former grounds.

"Only our fans can really know what it's like to feel that pain of when their club got taken away from them. To play for them, [it] is an honour to be able to give them anything positive and be a positive chapter in this club's long and very fruitful - hopefully - future," he told BBC Radio London.

"Obviously I was fortunate enough to be promoted with the club at our old ground and it served its purpose really well."

'Promotion is there for us'

AFC Wimbledon's Matty Stevens has scored 16 goals in League Two this season

Reeves first joined the club on loan from Brentford for a month in 2012, before making a permanent move from Swindon Town in 2015.

Having helped the club win promotion to League One in his first season, Reeves was sold to Bradford City in 2017 before returning to the Wombles six years later after spells at Notts County and Stevenage.

AFC Wimbledon's story holds a unique place in English football.

Founded by fans in response to Wimbledon FC's now infamous relocation to Milton Keynes, AFC Wimbledon started out in the Combined Counties League and rose all the way up to the third tier.

Their return to League Two three years ago is the only relegation in their 23-year history and this year, under head coach Johnnie Jackson, the Wombles are pushing for promotion again.

They sit fifth in the league, two points off automatic promotion, with 10 games of the season remaining.

A run of one victory in six has seen them drop from second in the table, yet they trail league leaders Walsall by eight points - just as they did when they occupied the runners-up spot last month.

"If anyone would have offered us the position that we're in now, with 10 games to go, at the start of the season I think we would have snapped their hand off," Reeves said.

"We've obviously still got to play many of those sides that are in and around us as well so it's all there for us.

"We've got to keep going and believing in what we're doing and hopefully by the end of the season we'll be celebrating."

'If we end up in the play-offs, I back us'

Johnnie Jackson has led Wimbledon to fifth in the League Two table with 10 games remaining

Wimbledon travel to Carlisle United on Saturday knowing they could end the day in third if results go their way.

The Dons' last home game of the season on 26 April is a crunch match against fellow promotion chasers Port Vale, before their final-day trip to Grimsby Town.

"We've put ourselves in a position where we'd like to finish on the last day of the season [with automatic promotion, that] would be really nice," Reeves added.

"If it ends up being that we're in the play-offs, so be it. It's still a massive, massive improvement from where the club has been in recent history.

"It would be another step forward from last season when we fell just short of the play-offs, which was extremely frustrating.

"I'm not sure there would be many clubs who'd want to face us in the play-offs, across two legs, with possibly the second leg at Plough Lane. Over one game in the final, who knows? It's down to the day really but I'd back us either way."