AFC Wimbledon can take Bolton and Cambridge inspiration in promotion hunt | OneFootball

A look back into the 2020/21 season throws up a scary similarity for AFC Wimbledon if they get promoted in 2024/25

The race for promotion is taking plenty of twists and turns as we enter the business end of the season, and it looks like AFC Wimbledon are in for a tight run-in.

The Dons look to be one of a few sides who are chasing automatic promotion that are currently projected to finish on low point tallies for the position in the league that they are chasing.

But it is not as though this is a rare thing, as only four seasons ago both Cambridge United and Bolton Wanderers finished their 20/21 campaigns with low points totals, only to achieve automatic promotion.

So, with inspiration, perhaps the thing needed to get the teams over the line, could the Dons use this story from history to spark their promotion bid to life?

Bolton and Cambridge's League Two promotion campaigns

Back in the 2020/21 season, when stadiums fell quiet due to Covid restrictions, League Two was peppered with future League One mainstays, fallen giants now lying in non-league, and the two aforementioned sides, Bolton Wanderers and Cambridge United.

This season in particular would mark Bolton's first in the fourth tier since 1988, and only their second ever in their history following a relegation from League One that they were always struggling to fight against after a twelve-point deduction at the start 2019/20.

Meanwhile, Cambridge welcomed in this bizarre and silent season as their seventh consecutive one in the division, having slowly built themselves up to good strength after their promotion to the league way back in 2014.

Now, for two teams that ended up finishing second and third in the league, their seasons could not have got off to more opposite starts. Bolton, still reeling from their tainted relegation, lost three out of their first five, and only picked up two wins before the end of October. Whereas Cambridge kicked off the campaign by losing only twice over that same period, winning six games.

There was the obvious assistance from current Wrexham star Paul Mullin that helped Cambridge along the way, with the Liverpudlian scoring 32 goals in the league alone, keeping the club going through mini-blips that would pop up here and there in the season.

Bolton, meanwhile, relied upon the goals of Eoin Doyle to not only pick themselves up after their awful start, but then help repair their form and overall points tally following a horrendous winter period of one win from the start of December 2020, until mid-February 2021.

This saw the two teams come to where we currently sit in the season, mid-March, and while Bolton were finally firing on all cylinders, Cambridge were starting to falter. Their late-winter form had seen them enter Spring with a patch of wins and losses sharing an equal spread on the form sheet. Bolton, on the other hand, remained flawless, keeping up the spirits that had seen them climb out of a winter of discontent.

Through to the end of the season, both sides did eventually pick up results consistently to just edge themselves into the top three bracket, not far behind eventual champions Cheltenham Town, but just enough ahead of the chasing pack that ended up being less than ten points away from Cambridge in second at the end.

What can AFC Wimbledon take from this previous League Two promotion fight

Having briefly and broadly looked over the campaigns of the two promoted in second and third place during the 20/21 season, what exactly can the Dons take and learn from this previous tight fight?

Firstly, it has to be said Wimbledon fans should stop worrying about Win-Draw-Loss records, as in that season, both Cambridge and Bolton finished with high amounts of losses for teams up that end of the table that season. Both also finished with points finishes that are some of the lowest in recent history.

Taking into account the last four seasons of League Two football, including the one discussed here, the points Cambridge accrued and finished second with (80) is by far the lowest.

So it would be fair to say that while the hype and expectancy around how many points fans think sides will get in upcoming fixtures is perfectly normal, history has shown that there will be low point finishes, and that losses, blips and stupidly dropped points have to be expected.

However, squad and team-wise at AFC Wimbledon, players only need to look at how poor Bolton were over the course of 20/21 to realise the blips they have experienced so far are not nearly as bad.

Yes, there have been poor attacking displays recently, and sometimes the approach to games has not been what is expected of a team sitting so highly, but if the results notch up perfectly while others falter, then it really is Wimbledon's promotion to lose.

Cambridge finished their promotion campaign, from matchday 37 onwards, with six wins, one draw and four losses, while Bolton just beat that form with seven wins, one draw and three losses, showing that all this Wimbledon squad have got to do is put together a run like they did over Christmas, and remain unbeaten with a good mix of multiple wins and a few draws, to secure a top three spot.

And with the form of Walsall indicating that they could slide dangerously into the playoffs, having once looked so strong, it is not impossible to say that the Dons could take inspiration from the likes of the U's and the Wanderers, better both of those teams in terms of form, and go ahead and win it all.

Which, all in all, would certainly mark an absolutely fantastic season of fairly unexpected joy and give the Dons their first title in the top four divisions of English football under the AFC Wimbledon name.