Three months back they were on the brink of despair, now the fan-owned club has once more shown its true colours. Construction of the new stadium is no longer threatened after an amazing show of support.

As you may recall, in early December supporters of AFC Wimbledon had to face a very tough reality. Construction of their long-desired stadium at Plough Lane proved more costly than expected and the team had an £11-million shortage to cover, without own resources to do so.

To make things more complicated, the club had no contract signed with Buckingham Group for main works. The company was about to wait until end of January for AFC Wimbledon to come up with the missing cash but generously decided to extend the deadline until end of February.

Meanwhile, the Dons had a couple options: deliver the stadium in raw form (which would have made it extremely hard to sustain itself) or let major investors into their club (3 were supposed to provide £7.5m in exchange for a third of the club), something they swore never to do again after the painful loss of their club years back.

Thankfully, the fan-owned club came up with a third solution: the Plough Lane Bond scheme. With an ambitious goal of £5 million, the project allowed buyers to select the time period (5-20 years) and interest rates (0-4%).

With great support from past and previous players, celebrities and supporters of other clubs (including the Football Supporters Association) the goal was reached just hours after initial deadline of February 14.

Now the bond remains open to further decrease the amount of debt AFCW have to take in order to pay for the stadium. But while £11 million would have made a major burden for daily operation of the club, debt of £7 million is what Wimbledon were already projecting to take. Therefore stadium funding is now covered and the club is safe without compromising its operating principle.