AFC Wimbledon boss Neal Ardley says he is delighted with the fans who travelled to see the team’s FA Cup tie with Tottenham Hotspur at Wembley.

The Dons managed to frustrate the Premier League side during the first half with a resilient performance, going into the break goalless.

A Nadjim Abdou strike rattled the crossbar and deflected off goalkeeper Michel Vorm in what was one of their best chances in the game, while the supporters got behind the team.

Ardley told the Wimbledon Guardian: “Yeah, it was brilliant. It’s little landmarks like these. People ask what this game meant to us, and in the context of our season it wasn’t going to mean a lot.

“We didn’t really believe we were going to go on and win the FA Cup but we’d got to the third round, we’d got a great draw and a great occasion, so in the context of our history it’s great.

“We have played Spurs at Wembley, another visit two years on from winning in the playoffs. And my main feel was that we did them proud, we needed to come away with them saying, ‘Wow what a great effort from the boys’.

“I feel like we’ve done that, and it was always my intention now to say that this game doesn’t affect the rest of our season. We use it as a great occasion but it doesn’t affect the rest of our season, and like I say I thought our fans were brilliant today.

“There was a real buzz about the atmosphere.”

Tottenham and England striker Harry Kane struck twice to give the home side a comfortable lead on 63 and 65 minutes, before a deflected Jan Vertonghen strike all but ended the game.

It was the first-ever meeting between the two clubs since AFC Wimbledon’s formation in 2002 in an historic occasion at the biggest football ground in England.

Asked whether it felt like a cup final given the ground, he added: “It’s far too cold to be a cup final, they are usually in the summer!

“No, not really. There was a big difference in the feeling for the playoff final two years ago and this game here, it felt like what it was. Although it was a wonderful day and it was at Wembley, I think in the build-up at times when you’re playing at Wembley it normally is a cup final.

“You had to keep remembering that you are an away team and you are visiting a team in the third round of the cup.

“So I think that bit of it was difficult because it was Wembley, but actually on the day no, it was a third round tie and we were just trying to do the best we could.

“Like I say, I thought probably for an hour we did that really well.”