It is remarkable to think that AFC Wimbledon could be promoted for the sixth time in their 14 years in existence at Wembley on Monday.

Quite properly the club considers the club founded as Wimbledon Old Centrals in 1889 as part of its history.

But while commentators now generally drop the AFC moniker – Monday’s play-off final is largely being promoted as plain old Wimbledon against Plymouth – what has been achieved since 2002 is every bit as spectacular as rise from the Southern League to FA Cup winners in the 1970s and 1980s.

Since fans came together in the Fox & Grapes refusing to allow the Dons to die, the club has blazed a trail for reborn clubs followed around the country from Halifax to Hereford – who both appeared in Wembley finals last Saturday – further proof that starting again from the bottom is not an impossible dream.

The old Wimbledon of course were always seen as the minnows during their 14-year stay in the top flight which came to an end in 2000.

It is worth remembering that – not so long after those much vaunted trials on Wimbledon Common - the Dons suddenly became the Manchester United of non-League.

There were plenty of people wanting to knock them off their pedestal, particularly in those first couple of years where petty jealousies abounded at crowds upwards of 3,000 from those teams who wouldn’t normally muster much more than family and friends.

The previous three managers since the club’s rebirth - Terry Eames, Dave Anderson and Terry Brown - had to deal with a weight of expectation that makes the fact that the course of upwards trajectory has remained constant all the more remarkable.

And, as it turns out, once the Dons went back to being effective minnows again after returning to the Football League, appointing a former Crazy Gang in Neal Ardley member fitted the bill perfectly.

The way his side came back from two goals down to Accrington in the play-off semi-final is testament to the way he has instilled that into the crop of 2016.

Whatever the result on Monday they have brought age-old values to a very modern football club.