The FA Cup is often praised for it's unpredictability, in that the competition can often see "giant killings" like no other. It's far from unheard of that a lower-league minnow can shock a big Premier League team and there's plenty of examples of just that happening in the past few years, but perhaps the biggest shock of the competition's history occurred 27 years ago - on the biggest stage of all.
It wasn't a shock so much because the two teams were hugely outmatched, as the Dons sat 7th in the First Division at the time of the final, but when Wimbledon FC took on Liverpool, the most dominant team of the decade, the Reds' well-oiled winning machine were expected to comfortably walk to their fourth FA Cup title because of just how good they were.
Liverpool, managed by club hero Kenny Dalglish, boasted a whole host of talented players amongst their star-studded starting line-up. Peter Beardsley, Steve Nicol, Steve McMahon, Alan Hanson, John Aldridge and Football of the Year John Barnes, to name a few.
On the opposite side of the tunnel, Wimbledon's players were relatively unheard of, just as their club had been only a few years before. Just eleven years previously they were a small non-league side playing their football at a distinctively small ground - Plough Lane. But on the 14th of May 1988 - they announced themselves to the world.
Wimbledon knew that their individual quality was inferior, but with their aggressive style of play, they made sure they would try to put Liverpool off of their game. Their rather simple game plan was demonstrated only seconds into the game when Vinnie Jones went through horrifically high and late on Liverpool midfielder Steve McMahon. It was clearly a premeditated move, as Jones admitted later on, with the idea of shutting down Liverpool's "hard-man" to show the entire Reds' side they would be in for a fight throughout the full 90 minutes.
Jones shockingly escaped a booking - perhaps because of McMahon's reaction to simply get up and play on, without a single complaint. The Dons' luck continued, the South London side profiting from another strange refereeing decision. When Peter Beardsley showed his class to drive through the Wimbledon defence and send a perfectly-executed chip over Dave Beasant, it looked as though the pre-match favourites were in-front but the referee brought back play to issue a foul, when Andy Thorne had been manhandling Beardsley on the run to goal.
Had advantage been rightly played, the final result could have been different. But as it stood, Wimbledon's dream was far from over, and Bobby Gould's side came one step closer to achieving it when they took a surprising lead shortly before half-time.Lawrie Sanchez diverted Dennis Wise's costless-kick from the left-hand side, looping it over Bruce Grobbelaar and into the far corner to put the Dons 1-0 up. The Liverpool players were evidently shocked, but in fact - they were already mentally shaken well before the first goal.
Wimbledon's eccentric and boisterous macho-behaviour, which earned them the nickname the Crazy Gang, unsettled the Reds. In the tunnel, the different mindsets of the opposing teams were clearly shown. Wimbledon, known for their simple and unsophisticated style of play, knew that they were nowhere near the individual levels of the Liverpool players. They knew that if they were to beat them, they would have to pyschologically put Dalglish's side off and get them off their game, so that's what they did.
Loud and aggressive, you could be forgiven for thinking the Dons were executing a military exercise during their walk out onto the pitch. Jones and John Fashanu could be clearly heard shouting in a deliberate attempt to unsettle Liverpool as they referred to Jones' pre-match threats, in which he was quoted in an interview as saying he was going to rip off Kenny Dalglish’s ear and spit in the hole.
In fact, so raring to go and pumped up were the Wimbledon players, the fear in the eyes of the Liverpool players was obvious. They couldn't even look their opponents in the eyes, so unsettled by Wimbledon's game plan they were and that continued well into the game.
With a 1-0 lead to hold, Liverpool continued to create chance after chance - but they were unable to find a way past Beasant in the Wimbledon goal. They were given the perfect opportunity to do so when Clive Goodyear was harshly adjudged to have fouled John Aldridge inside the box, the referee awarding Dalglish's side a penalty kick despite Goodyear looking to have won the ball in the challenge. The Republic of Ireland international stepped up, but watched in agony as Beasant dived to his left and palmed away the effort - Aldridge becoming the first man to see his penalty saved in a Wembley FA Cup Final as a result.
Despite constant late pressure, Liverpool's superior talent could not match the drive and effort of Wimbledon's unorthodox side and the Crazy Gang, who had become known for their juvenile pranks and antics that they played on each other and even their manager, ran out winners in one of the most surprising FA Cup Finals of all time.
John Motson uttered the words "…and the Crazy Gang have beaten the Culture Club" shortly after full-time, a short and succinct phrase that summed up the result aptly. Wimbledon, a small club from South London, defied the odds to deny Liverpool a second domestic double in three years - what would have made the Merseyside club the first team to ever twice do the double.
It wasn't Liverpool's first final loss, but it was certainly the most surprising. Taken out of their comfort zone by Wimbledon's sheer physicality and scare tactics, the Dons ensured they put themselves into the history books.
Now, the supporter-owned AFC Wimbledon will host the Premier League giants at the 5,000 capacity Kingsmeadow stadium in the very same competition, in what will be their first game against top flight opposition since they formed in 2002.
The club's meteoric rise since its foundation has seen the club promoted five times in nine campaigns to reach their current status in League Two, and with the likes of Adebayo Akinfenwa in their squad, Neal Ardley's side are certainly capable of repeating the heroics of 1988.
If AFC Wimbledon did manage to beat Brendan Rodgers' Liverpool on Monday evening, it would certainly rank alongside their previous victory over the Reds in the FA Cup's greatest upsets.