After winning our last friendly at Haydn Road (5-1 "away" vs Rushden & Higham), we've signed young full back Callum Westwood to a contract for the season. This makes him our only contracted player. There might have been a 7 day approach in the works for him, or we might have just felt the...
Diamonds won 5-1 "away" against Rushden & Higham. Honsetly it's a very "meh" result. Our manager spoke about giving others a chance in the last couple of friendlies, but the team saw few changes and we're looking at quite a settled squad. Probably see a few more changes for our first home game...
Big blow for Diamonds as Ross Oulton has seen a occurrence of his injury, meaning he's going to be out for 6 months again.
Oulton was a hugely influential player in the first few months of last season, but got injured and was sorely missed. To be without him again for 6 months is going to be...
Another 2 friendlies down, another 2 reasonable results against sides from levels above us.
First we lost 2-1 to St Ives, who have a good tactical manager we've encountered a fair few times before. They outdid us with a good game plan, and could be a good surprise package in the SLP.
Then we...
Brackley 2 - 2 Diamonds
A tight game, which it seems Brackley had the better of, but we managed to come from behind twice. Another decent result against a side from a couple of levels above us. Our preseason schedule now has us play Rushden & Higham, Winslow and Corby Town, so we should be...
Diamonds lost for the first time at Hayden Road 2-1 to St Ives, from one level above us.
We played a few more trialists this time, mostly from the bench, and a few different players to midweek.
Always good to get a mix of results in friendlies in order to see the parts you need to work on.
Well 2 friendlies down and we're looking pretty good so far by all accounts.
First there was the Barwell game that finished 2-2, with Diamonds then taking the trophy on penalties.
Tonight we beat Northampton 2-0.
Next up St Ives at home. Another good test against a side one level above.
We...
We beat Northampton Town 2-0
It was originally scheduled to be an XI from them, with mostly youth, but they decided they needed more fitness and upped it to a first team affair. They also played last night at Frome. Apparently they XI that started played 30 mins last night and the XI that...
Dale Roberts Memorial Cup - Diamonds 2 - 2 Barwell
AFCR&D win 6-5 on penalties.
Dolman loves a good equaliser against Barwell! Took it to pens and sub 'keeper Heath made the only save in sudden death. Barwell lead 2-0 before being pegged back, Diamonds had a chance with a pen saved at 1-0.
A...
Mixed thoughts to be honest. We were comfortable at Wellingborough while the search for potential future homes was ongoing. This obviously eats a chunk of finances.
Moving to Rushden has a big potential increase on our crowds. The ground is in a better location within the town for people to...
I'm looking back for some, and I can't find anything that was published in the local press. The Marshall Taylor that was involved with us was one of two people to chair the initial open consultation meeting(s) due to just stepping up. The other was Ralph Burditt, current AFCR&D chairman. Other...
Ha, not quite. It is possible that he is someone I knew a bit through his involvement with AFC Rushden & Diamonds reforming. I haven't been able to confirm yet if it's the same guy, but people are saying it is. I'm trying to find out either way.
AFC Rushden & Diamonds are moving to Hayden Road, Rushden. This means we will be playing in the old home of Rushden Town.
At the start of last season both Wellingborough Town FC and AFC Rushden & Diamonds were given notice to leave the Dog and Duck, Wellingborough by the private landlord by...
I'll make a whole topic about it - I get asked about 20 times a season so then I can just link to that and put the details there.
The short version is ground sharing either way. Initially at Kempston Rovers (Hillgrounds, Kempston), and then at Rushden & Higham when it is up to standard (Hayden...
Bit of a preseason update from us. Obviously made for Diamonds fans, but our manager Andy Peaks makes some good general points about the league in the first part. After that the individual comments from our players are probably not too interesting to neutrals.
Looks like we are really...
Everybody wants their trips to Moneyfields to be August/April! We go there the week before on the 27th January.
We're also dealing with ground stuff at the moment, having launched a crowd fund raising initiative to try and get some of the money together to fund the improvements to Hayden Road...