[ Tue 10th Apr ] v Bedford Town, KO 7:45pm ESE HOME

[Dazzler]

Official Match Preview

http://www.afcdiamonds.com/afc-rushden- ... 10th-april

[Trek]

I hope Ben Farrell will be available - planned to be missing 3 matches but that was before this match was re-arranged. We need to revert to 3 at the back as I wasn’t that impressed with Westwood and Ford who are wasteful in possession and their mistakes have contributed to the last two goals we’ve conceded. Luke Fairlamb also needs to add goals to his game and seems very reluctant to shoot which is a mystery considering that excellent goal he scored against Alfreton when he cut in from the left.

[BartonRaz]

This will be an extremely tough game. Bedford are in an excellent run of form and have ex-pro Paul Benson banging in goals for them these days. A serious improvement required if we’re to take any points on Tuesday.

[sussexdiamond]

At long last I have some home games to attend....but I am dreading them. The place will be like a morgue if we don't get back to winning ways. The many postponements of Saturday games must have cost the club dearly, we literally cannot afford to lose these matches. Worst case scenario is finish third and get two home games in play offs!

[rushdenman]

Barring some cricket scores from Hartley Wintney 4 wins and one draw, provided we don't lose to Cambridge City, will ensure a top 2 finish. That also assumes that other contenders don't drop points.
Beaconsfield have to play 3 games in a week twice so they could drop a few points due to that.
The big question is whether we are good enough at the moment to win 4 games out of 6.
Let's hope that the return of Ben Farrell ( and Diamond?), plus a change back to the 3-5-2 formation, will be enough to reverse our recent slump in form.

[Trek]

Still think that us and Beaconsfield are promotion favourites. H & Y are running out of games and Hartley have a lot to do and the playoff places are pretty much secured baring some heroics from Chalfont who play Cambridge City tomorrow evening.

[sandringhamdiamond]

Need a big spirited performance on and off the pitch, crowd need to get right behind the boys with the De Banke in full voice

[davealbon]

I hope Ben Farrell will be available...

I believe he will miss this one too, sadly.

[Olly]

Barring some cricket scores from Hartley Wintney 4 wins and one draw, provided we don't lose to Cambridge City, will ensure a top 2 finish. That also assumes that other contenders don't drop points.
Beaconsfield have to play 3 games in a week twice so they could drop a few points due to that.
The big question is whether we are good enough at the moment to win 4 games out of 6.
Let's hope that the return of Ben Farrell ( and Diamond?), plus a change back to the 3-5-2 formation, will be enough to reverse our recent slump in form.

Plus there's the 3rd place PPG situation as well, not something I expected we'd be worrying about a few weeks ago, but now it's relevant to us, and in which case it might be worth keeping an eye on Scarborough Athletic's results in the NPL North as well, who currently have a PPG of 2.138, whereas we have a PPG record of 2.083 having 2 fewer points. But whatever happens in that regard, it still seems unlikely we can gain automatic promotion with anything less than 4 wins out of 6, maybe 3 wins and a draw or 2 could do it, but we'd need quite a few favourable results elsewhere.

Our rivals still will drop points and I'd say 85-87 points will do it (we'd just about need to win all 6 games to take the title now imo), meaning we can still afford to drop a few points, but we've still got to dig out the wins from somewhere. We may not be playing well at the moment, but we're capable of doing what's needed to beat teams in this league, I don't care how we do it, if it takes a series of ugly, tense, grinded out 1-0 wins so be it, it would have been nice to get promoted in style with games to play, but right now I'm just hoping we can drag ourselves over the line and I believe we can do it.

[mikerd]

I hope Ben Farrell will be available...

I believe he will miss this one too, sadly.

Hasn't he served his ban, then? Dam he will be missed.