The unofficial AFC Rushden & Diamonds messageboard

Two of Diamonds wrote: The Conference had to make a choice, expunging their results is the only fair and practicable way of doing it at the moment IMO.

I agree. If Chester had remained then, bearing in mind their weakened squad, it would be a nailed on 3 points for the opposition in the remaining matches.

If we don't make the playoffs it won't be as a result of losing three points and 1 goal from our fixture at Chester.

One thing that probably come out of this episode is some form of guarantee needs to be put in place to stop the FL from taking away the two playoff places. Otherwise as Pigman says, we could see this whole situation repeat itself.

Trek wrote:

Two of Diamonds wrote: The Conference had to make a choice, expunging their results is the only fair and practicable way of doing it at the moment IMO.

I agree. If Chester had remained then, bearing in mind their weakened squad, it would be a nailed on 3 points for the opposition in the remaining matches.

If we don't make the playoffs it won't be as a result of losing three points and 1 goal from our fixture at Chester.

I agree with that because its the rules we started the season with, you can't move the goalposts ahlfway through the season - my point is they HAVE to look at the fairness of that and come up with a rule change for the future, we're obviously going to be faced with this situation again.

I disagree that it would be a nailed on 3 points had they stayed, for most yes, but football is an unpredictable beast and they would still throw up the odd result here and there, fight out the rare draw, that could have a massive effect on promotion and relegation.

Mad Dog wrote:One thing that probably come out of this episode is some form of guarantee needs to be put in place to stop the FL from taking away the two playoff places. Otherwise as Pigman says, we could see this whole situation repeat itself.

I cant remember if this has been mentioned already, but this is quite lkely to happen, with Darlington coming down!

jimbobjaw wrote:

Mad Dog wrote:One thing that probably come out of this episode is some form of guarantee needs to be put in place to stop the FL from taking away the two playoff places. Otherwise as Pigman says, we could see this whole situation repeat itself.

I cant remember if this has been mentioned already, but this is quite lkely to happen, with Darlington coming down!

Yeah that's the immediate situation facing the conference next year. I'm not sure if Darlington are as bad off as Chester, so we may not see the same result, but given they are almost nailed on to go down, the conference needs to do something to stop the FL blackmailing them again with the promotion places.

Mad Dog wrote:

jimbobjaw wrote:

Mad Dog wrote:One thing that probably come out of this episode is some form of guarantee needs to be put in place to stop the FL from taking away the two playoff places. Otherwise as Pigman says, we could see this whole situation repeat itself.

I cant remember if this has been mentioned already, but this is quite lkely to happen, with Darlington coming down!

Yeah that's the immediate situation facing the conference next year. I'm not sure if Darlington are as bad off as Chester, so we may not see the same result, but given they are almost nailed on to go down, the conference needs to do something to stop the FL blackmailing them again with the promotion places.

I would suggest they are nowhere near as bad, but with a big stadium that they cannot fill but have to maintain, with lower incomes, and (if they are idiots) potentially players with high contracts that dont leave, it could very easily get to that stage.