AFC Wimbledon stretch winless run to 21 games as unwanted record comes into view

Beleaguered AFC Wimbledon suffered a fifth consecutive defeat on Saturday.

The Dons lost 1-0 at home to Cambridge United and remain fourth-bottom in League One, a point shy of safety. Not only did the result keep Mark Robinson's side in the relegation places but it extended their horror winless sequence to a mammoth 21 games in all competitions.

You have to go all the way back to December 7 last year for the last time Wimbledon fans celebrated a victory. That 2-0 win at Accrington Stanley has been followed by nine draws and 12 losses - including a sobering defeat to non-league Boreham Wood in the FA Cup. Despite the situation appearing dire, with Cambridge's Adam May notching the only goal at Plough Lane on Saturday, Robinson remains defiant about the team's prospects.

The phoenix club were formed in 2002 by supporters who were unhappy about the decision to relocate the old Wimbledon to Milton Keynes and rename them the MK Dons. The two decades that have followed have seen six promotions but for the first time in the club's relatively short history they are facing the prospect of a maiden relegation.

"If I felt that I lost the players, of course, I would offer to resign," Robinson said. "But I have never quit anything in my life, and I have never failed anything in my life long term. That's the board's decision. We have had lots of conversations - they have come down to the training ground, and they can see the players.

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"There is a reason why a manager's lifespan lasts 16 months on average across the board, that's because football is a knee-jerk industry and people get sacked and don't get a chance to build things. I know long-term that I can build it, but that's a club thing. I don't doubt myself. I'm sure if the club had a queue of people ready to take the job over, I'm sure they would come and tell me.

"If the club came to me and said that they think there was a man to get us out of it, then we would have to look at that situation, because the club is far more important than any individual."

Despite their proud record of never having been demoted, the Dons have been battling the drop for a few years now. They finished just four points above safety last term while the previous two seasons saw them finish a solitary place above the drop zone.

Despite being on a wretched run of form, their winless run of 20 league games is some way off the Football League record. That is a whopping 36-game winless streak set by two sides. Derby County's drought straddled two seasons, from September 2007 to September 2008. The Rams were relegated in 2007-08 from the Premier League with an all-time low of just 11 points.

Macclesfield avoided breaking that unwanted record in October 2018. Their winless streak actually ran from January 2012 (they were relegated from League Two) and it was six-and-a-half years before they got to rectify it.