AFC Wimbledon will return to a heroes’ welcome today after their historic promotion to the Football league.

Hundreds of fans are expected to greet the players and staff at Kingsmeadow when they arrive back this afternoon from their play-off final win at the City of Manchester stadium yesterday.

The dons grabbed a thrilling penalty shoot-out win over Luton Town to go in to the Football League for the first time.

After a night's celebrations in Manchester, the team will arrive back at the Cherry Red Records Fans' Stadium about 4pm.

They are expected to leave their Manchester hotel shortly after 11am.

Fans wanting to greet their heroes can arrive at Kingsmeadow from 12pm today.

The bars will be open along with food counters.

The stadium itself will be opened to allow management and players to parade the trophy around the pitch on their arrival, before a party and disco.

After the dramatic win yesterday, manager Terry Brown praised the thousands of Dons fans who made the trip up to Manchester, saying "fan power" was behind the club's meteoric rise into the Football League within nine years of being formed.

The Dons have secured five promotions in nine years after they were set up in 2002 after Wimbledon FC moved to Milton Keynes.

Brown said: "It's a phenomenal achievement to do it in nine years.

"A club could possibly do it quicker with finance - but we have had no finance, just fan power."

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