Football in the mid-1970s was not for the faint-hearted. Determined to shoot down the champions, the Dons’ Southern
League rivals tried every trick in the book to stop Allen Batsford’s hardened band of brothers as they battled towards a
memorable Southern League and Cup double 50 years ago. In the new edition of the Historical Don, players and fans from
those days recall a series of bruising encounters - Kevin Tilley on being battered at Bedford, Glenn Aitken on being
whipped at Wigan, Billy Edwards on being kicked by Kettering, Dave Donaldson on defeat at Dagenham and Selwyn Rice
on the night when six were dismissed during a war with Wealdstone. After the dust had settled, the Dons travelled to take
part in the summer Anglo-Italian Cup tournament where, in the manager's memorable phrase, “we were kicked from one
end of Italy to the other.”