Here’s Taha Hashim’s report from Wembley.
Jake Reeves, Wimbledon skipper, speaks to Sky: “I’ve got so much pride in the group. We’ve worked extremely hard this season and had many setbacks, but we’ve carried on.
“We deserve this with what we’ve been through. We’re like a family in this squad and we fight for each other.”
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The Wimbledon players get to meet the EFL top brass and collect the trophy in the Royal Box.
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Simon McMahon: “Hi John. Myles Hippolyte is well known to Scottish football fans, having spent five seasons playing for Livingston, Falkirk, St. Mirren and Dunfermline. I don’t mean this disrespectfully, but he’s the textbook definition of a journeyman professional. Though I suppose can you really be considered a journeyman if you score a play-off final winner at Wembley..?”
Tears on the face of young Tommy Simkin say it all for Walsall. An f-bomb dropped by Myles Hippolyte the goalscorer, to follow the pattern of the weekend. “I had a feeling I would score today, I had a few texts telling me it was my day. Everyone to a man, we love each other. And we’re going to keep on doing that.”
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Full-time: Wimbledon 1-0 Walsall
AFC Wimbledon are back in League One, a sore one for Walsall. Dave Beasant has a big smile. Johnnie Jackson’s team were so well organised, Walsall showed where their season has gone so wrong.
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90+6 min: Wimbledon, back and face, back and face, as Simkin comes up for a set piece. His collapse in the Wimbledon box shows it’s all over.
90+4 min: Foul in midfield opens up a Walsall chance to get the ball in the mixer but Hall strays offside. Walsall have struggled with the occasion.
90+3 min: Barrett’s pass runs out of play to Walsall frustration. Can they find the final pass?
90+2 min: Another miskick by the unfortunate Okagbue.
90+1 min: Can Walsall rescue a season that had promised so much? Wimbledon will have to do some defending.
90 min: Wimbledon try to kill time with changes; off goes Hippolyte, as six minutes are added on.
89 min: Walsall look to Amantchi but Lewis is there, twice in succession. He’s been Wimbledon’s rock.
88 min: Browne, tireless, wins time and territory by chasing a lost cause. Wimbledon are happy to hold the ball in the Saddlers’ half.
86 min: A crowd of over 50,000 in announced. The EFL is in rude health.
85 min: Free-kick for a foul on Adomah, Amantchi nods the into space and Okabue shanks wide with his swinging leg.
84 min: Dave Beasant pictured in the crowd. No salad cream on the scene, and he’s sat down. So that’s good.
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82 min: Okagbue of Walsall is having one, first smashing a clearance into the stands then the ball slips for a foul throw. Not one for the highlights reel.
81 min: Wimbledon corner, in front of their fans. Simkin loses his footing but clears with his paws.
79 min: Fine header from Lewis clear lines from a Walsall corner. Wimbledon then win a foul, pressing the ball clear.
78 min: Off goes Matt Stevens for Wimbledon, on comes Josh Kelly to add some speed on the counter.
77 min: Walsall always looking to Amantchi, hoping Adomah can feed off him. Wimbledon seem likelier. As yet, they are not sat back.
76 min: Walsall make two changes – Alfie Chang and Nathan Asiimwe are withdrawn for Connor Barrett and Charlie Lakin. Wimbledon are ready to make their own.
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72 min: Goodman comes out to claim a long ball, and a clash with his own defender, Lewis. He’ll be OK to play.
70 minutes: Chances at both ends. Much better. Wimbledon getting their share with Reeves and Stevens both getting sighters.
69 min: Harbottle departs, Ogundere… and it looks as though Neufville can win it, only for Simkin to save at his near post with his right hand.
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68 min: Walsall at it now, Hall having a shot deflected. A foul in the resultant corner cools the danger for now.
66 min: Lewis and Amantchi has become the key battle, Walsall looking repeatedly towards the big striker.
64 min: Amantchi and Adomah instantly involved but Joe Lewis read the danger first time and closes down the forward second time and Goodman is not fooled by an attempted lob.
62 min: On comes supersub Adomah, with Levi Amantchi. Gordon and Matt are the departures for Walsall.
61 min: Not many passing sequences here but there’s always another way.
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59 min: Walsall want to get Adomah on but Wimbledon have a couple of digs, before Reeves hoofs over. The crowd was begging him to shoot.
58 min: This weather has added an intangible. Though in truth, the ball is likelier to go long even more now.
57 min: The rain of that level where it’s dripping from everyone’s nose. Wimbledon and Stevens force a chancer for Browne but it’s blocked.
55 min: It’s now tipping down with rain at Wembley, the posh seats are emptying as Harbottle is patched up. He is eventually fit to resume.
53 min: Hall and Harbottle clash. An accident, but this game is getting more physical. Harbottle, the Dons hero of the hour, is in visible pain.
51 min: Nasty clash between Asiimwe and Browne. Bit loose from the Wimbledon man.
50 min: All those in Poundland replica shirts were up and believing their team had scored there.
49 min: Walsall are pushing on, and get a corner. Goodman claims it with ease…he looks far less comfortable when Asiimwe’s ball comes in, and the ball almost squeaks over the line. Brilliant defending from Harbottle and far more exciting football, too.
47 min: Albert Adomah, who was Walsall’s talisman in the semis, is on the bench and having a right old laugh. He’s 37 now, the former Boro, Bristol City, Villa and Forest man.
46 min: Back away we go. Can Walsall manage a shot? They didn’t manage one in the first half, the top scorers in the regular season, too.
Half-time: Wimbledon 1-0 Walsall
It needed something to happen and that was always most likely from set piece. Myles Hippolyte’s finish was a beauty and hopefully opens up the second half.
45+2 min: Simkin had no chance with that skidding finish. Walsall push on immediately, and Liam Gordon is in a promising position, only to lose his footing.
Goal! Wimbledon 1-0 Walsall (Hippolyte, 45+1)
Tilley’s kick is to the back post, the ball bounces clear and the second ball – after a previous hack - is walloped by Hippolyte low past Simkin.
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44 min: Long throw from Harbottle causes problems, and a Wimbledon corner.
42 min: Wimbledon with the greater possession, Walsall looking to the counter. The passes are not exactly landing.
xG – if you should be bothered 0.12 – 0 in Wimbledon’s favour. Just over a tenth of a goal to nil.
41 min: This was planned by both managers, looking to close off any margins. The TV commentators, Jobi McAnuff, sounds like he is beginning to lose heart.
39 min: Reeves’ pass finds Tilley in space but not in good touch. Are Wimbledon beginning to find space? It’s in terribly short supply.
37 min: Goodman, the Wimbledon keeper, almost gets rumbled by Matt, and has to hack clear.
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35 min: One real shot on goal. No risks taken. Penalties seem to beckon, even at this juncture.
33 min: McEntee is Walsall’s replacement for Williams, who struggles to leave the field. His first job is to deal with the corner from Browne’s saved shot.
31 min: Walsall’s Williams hurt himself when failing to get to Browne. Running repairs being carried out but that’s it for Williams.
30 min: Long balls being attempted, but forwards and wing-backs are not picking up in the loose….at last, the ball is launched to Browne and a fine save from Tommy Simkin.
27 min: We’re waiting for something to light this game up. It’s decidedly cagey. Plenty of nerves.
25 min: Smith has another sighter, with even less accuracy. Dave Bassett is in the crowd today. The true father of the Wimbledon way.
23 min: It was Callum Maycock who swapped boots with Stevens….can anyone remember an incident like this? The boots just fell apart. You never got that in Alan Cork’s day.
22 min: As Stevens gets shod, his teammate, Ali Smith, has a sighter at goal, but blams it wide.
20 min: Stevens on the end of a tackle and his boots look to have fallen apart. He has to borrow a pair from a teammate. Was the old warhorse wearing his lucky boots from 2016?
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18 min: Neither team has attempted to get the ball down and play. These playoffs have not been much of an advert for Pep Guardiola’s sustained influence on English football.
16 min: Walsall go back down the other end. Chang fancies a dig but too much traffic. Goodman, the Palace loanee, eventually claims a long throw. Both teams use them, and regularly.
14 min: Long-throw chance, Harbottle launches for Wimbledon. Hippolyte seized on it. Stevens in the area but Simkin sprawls on the ball.
13 min: So, as prescribed, it’s tense, and an intriguing, absorbing tactical battle.
12 min: Lots of the ball dropping loose in the area; nothing clearcut has fallen yet.
10 min: Hippolyte seizes on a loose ball, and Chang is aware to the danger. Much is expected of the Birmingham loanee.
8 min: A glimmer there, as Wimbledon’s Browne speeds away and fails to find Stevens. Browne then takes a fierce tackle; reducer?
6 min: Good tussle there between George Hall and Wimbledon’s Lewis, who tackles in the spirit of Eric Young and Andy Thorn.
5 min: Walsall force a corner, and here’s where the game can be won and lost. This time, Chang gives it too much leather and troubles the drones over the field rather than any players.
3 min: Early attack from Wimbledon, Tilley zings in a cross, and Walsall’s Stirk does the mopping up
2 min: The word is both team’s managers like the ball to be played long. That’s bad news and good news. The Wembley nerves can do funny things to footballers’ range of passing.
Away we go at Wembley
1 min: Walsall get it launched from goalie Simkin. Not as many fans there as were on Saturday and Sunday but loud nonetheless.
The game kicks off at 3.01pm to draw attention to a British Heart Foundation campaign led by 1988 hero/antihero Vinnie Jones.
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Jake Reeves, Wimbledon skipper, speaks. He was around in 2016: “Obviously it’s two different games in two different eras. It’s going to be difficult, we know what we’re coming up against in this Walsall team.
“We have an unbelievable defensive record and we’ve shown we can score a lot of goals. It’s exactly the sort of game that people will want to watch.”
After Tyrece Campbell on Saturday, Tyreese Campell on Sunday, who can be a game-changer?
Just like the League One playoff, neither manager – Matt Sadler of Walsall, and Johnnie Jackson of Wimbledon – makes any changes from the second leg.
Let’s hope for a slightly better game, as tense as it was.
The Championship game had much more drama.
The teams
AFC Wimbledon: Goodman, Harbottle, Lewis, Johnson, Tilley, Smith, Reeves, Hippolyte, Neufville, Browne, Stevens. Subs: Ward, Maycock, Kelly, Ball, Sasu, Ogundere, Pigott.
Walsall: Simkin, Okagbue, Williams, Allen, Asiimwe, Chang, Stirk, Liam Gordon, Jellis, Hall, Matt. Subs: Hornby, Connor Barrett, McEntee, Lakin, Amantchi, Comley, Adomah.
Referee: Will Finnie (Bedfordshire)
How they got there
Preamble
The last match of the English domestic season sees Wimbledon return to the scene of their most famous coup. Not 2016, but 1988. Walsall looked nailed on to be automatically promoted only to lose their way as the season dragged on. Walsall were 30 seconds from automatic promotion until Antoni Sarcevic’s 96th-minute winner for Bradford to usurp them. Here is their redemption arc but the good people of Earlsfield and Morden will be roaring on their Dons.
Kick-off is at 3.01pm, join me.
