The unofficial AFC Rushden & Diamonds messageboard

Could be a record year for rainfall and it's quite ironic that it's effectively all in the last 9 months. Recall visiting Rutland Water on a very warm day on the 29th March and I was shocked how low the reservoir was, in fact at the lowest level since it was constructed in the 70's I believe. Pitsford also had very little water, and Anglian Water shortly after this announced a hose pipe ban and the rest is history.

I'm not holding out all that much hope for this one, considering the recent photos of the pitch and predicted weather.

http://maps.environment-agency.gov.uk/w ... ,&scale=10

The Environment Agency's floodplain maps show quite neatly the expected flood extents and severe flood extents. (Incidently the company I work for provides a lot of the behind the scenes software which operates this)

Sadly it's quite true that the only available land suitable for a sporting use does tend to be land that's not suitable for commercial or residential use. It's just something we'll have to live with.

Nene park was designed with drainage and it's location in mind from the start, in fact I think it even had a pump moving water away from the site to assist the drainage (I could be wrong there, someone with a more mechanical knowledge of nene park would know better) sadly although I'm sure Paul and the grounds guys can make a few changes to assist drainage ( and I'm sure if they haven't already they're planning it), up against that volume of water and in such a location they're pretty much powerless.

As others have said it's been a freak year, remember Party in the Park and the planned first game of the season friendly were called off because of the wet, we just haven't had enough dry weather for the water table to drop sufficiently.

Looking like Oadby away will be the next game then and this is MASSIVE. With all the postponements I'm hoping we take 400+ to this one. Particularly in light of the league standings.

UttoDiamond wrote:Looking like Oadby away will be the next game then and this is MASSIVE. With all the postponements I'm hoping we take 400+ to this one. Particularly in light of the league standings.

You'd like to think so - I reckon it'll be 300 tops though due to the slightly increased distance. We randomly took quite a lot to Eynesbury and Wootton BC, yet only managed around 50 more at Buckingham than we had at Ashington. Our away attendances are proving hard to predict.

BartonRaz wrote:
You'd like to think so - I reckon it'll be 300 tops though due to the slightly increased distance.

Oadby is marginally nearer for me than the Dog n' Duck and an easier journey. ;)
I think the reason that away attendances are hard to predict is that, like the old RDFC, many of our supporters don't actually live in the Rushden/Higham/Irthlingborough area.

BartonRaz wrote:

UttoDiamond wrote:Looking like Oadby away will be the next game then and this is MASSIVE. With all the postponements I'm hoping we take 400+ to this one. Particularly in light of the league standings.

You'd like to think so - I reckon it'll be 300 tops though due to the slightly increased distance. We randomly took quite a lot to Eynesbury and Wootton BC, yet only managed around 50 more at Buckingham than we had at Ashington. Our away attendances are proving hard to predict.

Home and away attendances have dropped slightly since the start of the season, probably either due to the winter weather or just a case of the initial hype of the new club not being there anymore, we've not managed over 600 for a home game for 4 games now and I think if Buckingham had come in the first few games, we would have had 100 more there. Would be good to see 500+ overall at Oadby, with a few home fans in that as well, Leicester have only got Burton in the cup, so no excuses for the locals not to turn out for such an important game.

BartonRaz wrote:

UttoDiamond wrote:Looking like Oadby away will be the next game then and this is MASSIVE. With all the postponements I'm hoping we take 400+ to this one. Particularly in light of the league standings.

You'd like to think so - I reckon it'll be 300 tops though due to the slightly increased distance. We randomly took quite a lot to Eynesbury and Wootton BC, yet only managed around 50 more at Buckingham than we had at Ashington. Our away attendances are proving hard to predict.

Buckingham could of been low(er) for a number of reasons:

Weather
People cutting down in the run up to Xmas
The people that went Ashington deciding not to go Buckingham for money reason

In this league, with the lack of roofed stands etc i think the away turn out (as the home turn out) is greatly effected by the weather

I thought there looked a good few more at Buckingham that was (estimated) announced.

Second half we sat in the 'stand' and the terrace opposite looked fairly full.

The Match Status page on the OWS still has a massive MATCH OFF in bold red from the last game and it could be misleading because it takes a couple of seconds to read around and notice that its old and not related to tomorrow. Hopefully someone can get that changed