Accrington Stanley are the Leicester City of League Two according to AFC Wimbledon boss Neal Ardley – and he did not want them in Saturday’s play-off semi-final.

Ardley believes the way Stanley defied bigger budget clubs under his opposite number John Coleman to all but clinch automatic promotion has been a footballing fairy-tale every bit as good as that of Claudio Ranieri’s newly crowned Premier League Champions.

So much so he had been willing them on in the quest to reach League One, but now he must try and spoil their party.

“John Coleman was my manager of the year,” he said. “I have got so much respect for him, his team and the job they have done. It has been incredible, the story and the performances of their team.

“I really wanted them to go up as it was a story which matched Leicester. Now obviously I hope they don’t because we have got to play them.”

AFC Wimbledon boss: Neal Ardley

Stanley only missed out on automatic promotion because of Bristol Rovers’ stoppage-time winner against Dagenham & Redbridge in the final game of the league campaign on Saturday.

Dons midfielder Dannie Bulman compared such a psychological blow to realising you’ve run a 46-game marathon only for someone to put a 100 yard-sprint on the end.

Ardley though feels Coleman will have healed any scars by the time Stanley travel down to Kingsmeadow, meaning Dons will have to be at peak performance over the two legs if they are to advance to Wembley.

“John will get them over that, he is an experienced guy, so he will know what to do," he added.

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"He has got a mettle about him and they will be coming here buzzing next Saturday and the following Wednesday.

“So we have got to bring our A game and all I and the players can effect is us bringing our A game. If we bring our A game and they bring their A game it is going to be very, very tight.

“You have seen our spells of when we play well when we’ve won 6 and 7 out of eight and when we haven’t we have got four points out of six games.

“When we play really, really well we give ourselves a chance against anyone. If we drop our levels at all we don’t.”

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