The Scot was the man in charge when the club moved in 2003

People need to move on from Wimbledon’s controversial move from London to Milton Keynes, according to the man who oversaw the team at the time.

Stuart Murdoch was the first manager of MK Dons following their formation in 2004, but had been manager of Wimbledon since 2002. Having joined the club in 1996 initially as goalkeeper coach, Murdoch took over initially on an interim basis but impressed and kept the job through the club’s takeover and subsequent move.

Despite guiding the team through the tumultuous waters following the club’s move, which has made them pariahs in the footballing world to this day, Murdoch was sacked in November 2004.

Now two decades on from the move, Dons are still villainous in the eyes of many in the football pyramid, something which Murdoch thinks is long in the tooth.

He said: “It was the craziest time ever, and I cannot believe it happened. All the publicity, all the aggravation that has followed ridiculously for the 20+ years, it should have been put to bed a long time ago.

“All the credit goes to the lads who came up. We had a team of 19-year-olds to start with. It was madness. We were up the road, back down the road, we’d come and look at what was going on here. It was total madness. Some of the lads were living in Pete’s back garden, it was madness.

“When we came up here, we weren’t really even here, we were training in Wimbledon, coming up on a Friday night. Every game that season was an away game. I think some of the lads enjoyed it more than others!”

Former Dons chairman and owner Pete Winkelman paid tribute to Murdoch, admitting he felt he may have cut him loose from the fledgling club too early.

“I really regret sacking him,” Winkelman said. “I was so early in being a chairman, and as soon as the going got tough, I sacked my first manager. When you look at what he was trying to do, he was trying to do it with young players he was bringing through.

“In the early days, we lost most of the players through administration, we were right back to square one. It took us a whole year to move out of admin and to Milton Keynes.”