[ Sat 24th Aug ] v Sleaford Town KO 3pm UCLP HOME

[Trek]

The description that was put to me that I particularly liked is that we have still the 'soul' of Rushden & Diamonds and I suppose it rests with us the fans.

[Trek]

We need to make sure that AFCR&D do not have the same reputation among youth clubs as R&D did otherwise we are chuffed.

Clearly we are structured in a different way now, with your valuable involvement, and a lot of emphasis is now being put on the 'community' aspect but it is easy to see how a youth system run by a fully professional club such as RDFC could rightly attract that sort of criticism. I guess a similar criticism would exist in Peterborough, Cambridge and Luton.

[Bob's Bitch]

I'm somewhat in the latter camp and see it as an extension. Ultimately we were fucked over, but we did have control at one point and let it go. I suppose the lesson for all fan-owned clubs now is to make sure they never get in a situation where they're forced to give up control of their destiny.

If the new club hadn't been set up then you could say we let it die, but the fact that we've got a sizeable fanbase shows that enough people care.

AFCW fans were fucked over, Chester fans were fucked over and Coventry fans are being fucked over and tribalism in football means that other fans won't understand and will say 'you let your club die', unless they've experienced a similar situation and realise that very quickly the sums involved become too great for fans to intervene.

I don't see much difference between us and clubs who have become new companies in the eyes of the law. The latter just fiddled the system.

[Brownie]

The description that was put to me that I particularly liked is that we have still the 'soul' of Rushden & Diamonds and I suppose it rests with us the fans.

That`s not a bad one Trek, though not sure I can agree with some of the comments made, yes of course we have links with the old Club, we were born out of it`s demise, but we are and will always be very different. Our friends down the road are commenting on seeing people this year who they had not seen watching K*ttering for 2 + years, so are we to give up on those who fell out with R&D all be it longer ago than that :?: the are after all a lot of them and it may be worth a little effort (an article in the local press not so much football related but about the Club & how it operates & is run) as to move forward which is what we all want as a sustainable Club our costs will escalate and possibly the easiest way to cover these costs will be more people through the NEW turnstiles.

[Formic]

I'm a bit surprised by all of this negative talk whilst we are still in the holiday season and battling poor weather and midweek games arranged at short notice. I commented after the FA Cup game how many "old RDFC faces" I'd seen that I hadn't seen at an AFCRD game before. It's quite difficult to compare with last season, as there was the novelty factor of a new club.

We saw both at the start and end of last season we can draw crowds of about 700 - and our away following is truly exceptional for this level (and several levels above).

There will be many who only come along to the odd game - the challenge is encouraging them to come along more often with a quality offering on and off the pitch.

[SouthRushdenJFC]

We need to make sure that AFCR&D do not have the same reputation among youth clubs as R&D did otherwise we are chuffed.

Clearly we are structured in a different way now, with your valuable involvement, and a lot of emphasis is now being put on the 'community' aspect but it is easy to see how a youth system run by a fully professional club such as RDFC could rightly attract that sort of criticism. I guess a similar criticism would exist in Peterborough, Cambridge and Luton.

Peterborough and Cambridge are active in our area, along with Northampton, Leicester, MK Dons, West Brom and Aston Vanilla with the exception of K*ttering R&D were by far the worst.

[Bob's Bitch]

We need to make sure that AFCR&D do not have the same reputation among youth clubs as R&D did otherwise we are chuffed.

Out of interest, what did the old youth set-up do that got them a bad reputation?

[Trek]

Peterborough and Cambridge are active in our area....

My reference to these two clubs and indeed Luton was how they might be perceived in their own local catchment area rather than any scouting set up they might have in other outlying areas such as East Northants.