When Erik Samuelson takes friends to watch AFC Wimbledon the common reaction is surprise. "They always comment that everyone in the crowd seems to know each other," says Samuelson, the Blue Square Premier club's chief executive. "There's an extraordinary amount of socialising between our fans; we've got something different, something special."

As supporters head to Kettering today hoping for the victory which could push Terry Brown's team back to the top of the table, designated national non-league day to promote life outside the Football League, it should not be forgotten that such enduringly powerful bonds were born from adversity. After the Football Association sanctioned Wimbledon FC's controversial 2002 relocation to, in Samuelson's words, "a Buckinghamshire new town", those left behind faced contrasting options.

Disenfranchised fans could easily have begun to inhabit what he calls a permanent state of schadenfreude, revelling in every minor setback involving a side destined to become the Milton Keynes Dons. The healthier alternative was to build a new club from scratch. "It's been better to channel all the anger and energy into creating something good," he says.

Today is an opportunity to showcase what has been achieved. Owned wholly by its supporters via the "one fan, one vote" Dons Trust and staffed by 250 unpaid volunteers, AFC Wimbledon can be seen as "the big society" in action.

A former partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Samuelson took early retirement to earn "a guinea a year"("It sounds grander than a pound") spearheading a collective labour of love. So far it is paying rich emotional dividends.

With profits ploughed back into team building and the purchase of their Kingsmeadow ground, AFC's upward trajectory already bears uncanny parallels with Wimbledon FC's rise from the Southern League to England's top division during the 1970s and 80s.

After starting on level nine of English football's pyramid, four promotions in seven seasons have left AFC Wimbledon one step from the Football League. There is a definite sense of history repeating itself. "Promotion is this season's aim," Samuelson says. "We've got a very good young team and we're doing our utmost to reach League Two."

It helps that the squad of the experienced manager, Terry Brown, have gone full-time. Yet though the club have come a long way fast since players turned out for expenses only and fans perched on hay bales during its first Combined Counties League game at Sandhurst Town's Bottom Meadow ground progress remains relative. "A month's pay for a top Premier League player would cover our entire season's wage bill," Samuelson acknowledges.

Funds generated by the 2,200 season-ticket holders and regular 3,500 strong home crowds have been pumped into youth development with this policy vindicated by the success of a reserve ensemble coached by Marcus Gayle. During the 1990s Gayle played in a Wimbledon side which finished eighth in the Premier League and the former winger's return meant a lot. "Marcus's arrival was hugely significant," Samuelson says. "He accepted nominal wages because he wanted to come back. Marcus 'gets it'. We couldn't wish for a better ambassador."

If Gayle represents an important bridge with the past, he also recognises the need to escape certain aspects of it. While his innovative use of psychology and sports science have ensured AFC Wimbledon are anything but carbon copies of their Crazy Gang forebears, the emphasis he and Brown place on discipline and sportsmanship is reflected by the club's collection of fair play awards three seasons running.

Such a treble would have been unthinkable in the rather more unreconstructed days of Dave Bassett, Wally Downes and Dennis Wise but it has delighted Samuelson. "We'd love to be everyone's second team," says a chief executive whose admirable blueprint is blemished by a single cloud hovering on a possibly not too distant horizon.

"It will be absolutely horrible when we play MK Dons, the result will be irrelevant," he says. "They stole from us."