AFC Wimbledon seal promotion to League One as Guitar Hero joins Crazy Gang folklore

Spice Boy Myles Hippolyte sparked another Wombles party at Wembley as AFC Wimbledon left their unloved step-brothers from Milton Keynes behind.

As the Grenada international's winner in first-half stoppage time sent the original Dons - accept no imitations on retail parks - back into League One, manager Johnnie Jackson led the celebrations of 30,000 fans following their 1-0 win against Walsall in the fourth tier play-off final. On international duty, 30-year-old Hippolyte represents the Caribbean island where the most famous export is nutmeg.

In more than 400 games from the Spartan South Midlands League upwards, he has never played at a higher level than League Two - but now he belongs in the Crazy Gang pantheon of Wembley heroes with Lawrie Sanchez and penalty-save legend Dave Beasant. Hippolyte said: “We’re just a great team. We're hard to beat, we run, we fight, we do everything for each other. I had a feeling I was going to score today. I don't know why, but I got a few texts saying this was going to be my day.”

In a throwback to Wimbledon’s finest hour, there were echoes of the 1988 final - all-blue against all-red, same score. With Crazy Gang godfather Dave Bassett and Beasant in the posh seats, they had to weather heavy pressure and an even heavier downpour to take the chequered flag.

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Guitar hero Jackson raised £10,000 for a children’s cancer charity by performing open-air gigs in his back garden and posting them online during lockdown. Now he’s turned his promotion heroes into AFC Wimbledon’s boys of strummer.

Jackson said: “As a player, not playing at Wembley was one of my big regrets, so to lead a team out here and win makes this probably the best day of my life. But it was all torture. We couldn’t rest for a minute and this is surreal, it feels like a dream.

“This club was reborn in a pub and I should think we’ll be visiting quite a few in the next 24 hours to celebrate! I was pleased to see Charlton go up because I’ve got a long history with the club, and I got a few messages off people there overnight saying, ‘Now it’s your turn.’ But I wouldn’t have thought I’ll be getting the guitar out yet - I don’t want it doused in champagne.”

Walsall must have feared it wouldn’t be their day when clots selling half-and-half scarves on Wembley Way couldn’t even spell the club’s name right. But the Saddlers were 12 points clear at the top in January and somehow they blew it. Their collapse will go down as one of football’s most harrowing Devon Loch tributes.

In the battle of League Two’s best defence and highest scorers, it was more cagey than the lions’ enclosure at Whipsnade Zoo and the first goal was always likely to prove decisive. Chances were rarer than hen’s teeth until Marcus Browne’s shot was blocked but Hippolyte’s crisp half-volley from the edge of the box was too much for Walsall keeper Tommy Simkin, only his third goal of the season and easily the most precious.

The Saddlers rallied after the break, Riley Harbottle clearing off the line from Jamille Matt’s flick, and Walsall boss Mat Sadler seemed convinced Joe Lewis should have been penalised for grabbing a handful of Levi Amantchi’s shirt in the box.

Sadler groaned: “When you are stood there watching the celebrations and it’s not your players who are celebrating it’s torture. But we are fighters so there will be no feeling sorry for ourselves.”

WIMBLEDON (3-5-2): Goodman 6; Harbottle 7 (Ogundere, 69, 6), Lewis 7, Johnson 8; Tilley 6, Smith 6, Reeves 7, Hippolyte 7 (Maycock, 90), Neufville 6; Browne 7 (Pigott, 90), Stevens 5 (Kelly, 77).

WALSALL (3-4-2-1): Simkin 7; Okagbue 6, Williams 5 (McEntee, 34, 6), Allen 6; Asiimwe 5 (Barrett, 74), Chang 5 (Lakin, 74), Stirk 6, Gordon 6; Jellis 5 (Adomah, 63, 7), Hall 6; Matt 5 (Amantchi, 63, 6).

REFEREE: Will Finnie

ATTENDANCE: 50,947

MAN OF THE MATCH: Ryan Johnson