[ Tue 17th Jan ] v Rugby Town, KO 7:45pm NPL1S HOME

[Rushden123]

A home win and the way things have been going we all have to be grateful for that. Still major problems through out the team, ball retention, shape and whoever plays right back to name a few. From watching the game and hearing the players they seemed confused as to where they were meant to be playing at times. The standard of football is very poor but maybe a lot of the negatives can be put down to players lacking confidence after the run of games at home. None of the midfield three impressed and we are in desperate need of a bit of energy and creativity in there.

[Phil-the-Diamond]

Well we made hard work of that.

Rugby will be very disappointed, I don't think they deserved to lose by 3.

Could have been very different if the ref had given a penalty to them when it was 1 - 0 (definite shirt pull, got away with that one!).

Thought McNulty did OK at rb. We need Ashton back asap. although Winters is pretty solid.

[Mad Dog]

I genuinely thought at times tonight I was witnessing a match between two teams competing for relegation out there. At times it felt like Rugby were the better team, really we are lucky they couldn't hit a barn door tonight.

Whilst the away form has been fantastic results wise, it has masked some very fortunate results. In terms of the most recent results, we really could have been 4-0 down by half time against Bedworth, in large part by the poor selection decision to stick Winters on the bench and play Brad out of position alongside Liam, whilst Lincoln will have felt very disappointed to have lost to us last month. Going further back, the Stockbridge away result owes a lot to Ben Heath, who now with hindsight was unfairly axed from the starting line up given his performances in the lead up to the FA Trophy game (we had assumed he was cup tied). I'd probably go as far to suggest that he may be our best keeper, most certainly in terms of distributing the ball from the back. I mean that as a compliment to Ben, especially given his age.

We seem to have a tendency to be very route one to Nabil, even from the back, in contrast to most of the teams we've come across this season. It's certainly not been easy on the eye at home. Yet we have certainly at times played football, and have proven capable of doing so.

Lewis Wilson and Nabil seem to have a bit of understanding when playing with each other when they've had the chance to play with each other, why not take advantage of that when Lewis is available for selection again, especially given he played well against Rugby last Tuesday.

[Three of Diamonds]

For a 3 nil win it was very poor. No pace, not closing down quickly enough and little in the way of excitement. If Rugby could hit the target we'd have been in trouble.
Fazel my man of the match and Taylor did well when he came on.

[BartonRaz]

That's a first for me. Maybe it has happened before but I can't ever remember walking away from a 3-0 win feeling the way I did yesterday. This group of players individually are capable of so much better but collectively it's a mess. Thankfully Haydn's top notch grub was there to cheer me up. I think it's called comfort eating!

We have now drawn level with the mighty Loughborough Dynamo and Carlton Town in terms of home wins, so every cloud and all that.

[bozzer]

in my opinion last night wasn't perfect, the first 20 minutes i thought we were good again. The defence was very good, we restricted rugby to long shots and free kicks, Finners didn't have to make any saves, so job done there. The midfield could definitely be better, rugby had lots of possession we didn't control this area, they did, however what did it bring them. Our front three were ok, not brilliant and not awful but ok, all worked hard, Tom took his header well, Fazel scored and Nabil could have done

Good substitutions, Taylor made a different so did Lewis and i think Rory picked up a knock. We could have scored another 3 looking at the highlights, they hit the bar once.

If we have played poorly all season (and for some games we have, some we haven't), i will take 5th position on that, surely we all want to win with entertaining football, if you can't have entertaining football then we want a win, if we can't win then we don't want to lose.

Loads of work to do still, however our team looks to built on a solid defence (which had a bad game on saturday) last season the league winners and the playoff winners got out of our league by having a solid defence and nicking wins, 1-0, 2-0, 2-1.

[Formic]

We really seem to be missing Brad's composure in midfield, supporting the defence and stopping those runs towards the area that kept on forcing us to concede free kicks in dangerous positions last night. If we do continue playing 4-3-3 whilst we don't have viable wide options then I'd like to see a midfield three of Harris, Farrell or Curtis and Lewis Leslie providing more of the threat going forwards.

[davealbon]

in my opinion last night wasn't perfect, the first 20 minutes i thought we were good again. The defence was very good, we restricted rugby to long shots and free kicks, Finners didn't have to make any saves, so job done there. The midfield could definitely be better, rugby had lots of possession we didn't control this area, they did, however what did it bring them. Our front three were ok, not brilliant and not awful but ok, all worked hard, Tom took his header well, Fazel scored and Nabil could have done

Good substitutions, Taylor made a different so did Lewis and i think Rory picked up a knock. We could have scored another 3 looking at the highlights, they hit the bar once.

If we have played poorly all season (and for some games we have, some we haven't), i will take 5th position on that, surely we all want to win with entertaining football, if you can't have entertaining football then we want a win, if we can't win then we don't want to lose.

Loads of work to do still, however our team looks to built on a solid defence (which had a bad game on saturday) last season the league winners and the playoff winners got out of our league by having a solid defence and nicking wins, 1-0, 2-0, 2-1.

I agree with a lot of that Jon, and I'm all for trying to instil positivity, but the fact is the supporters are not getting value for money in terms of entertainment this season, particularly at the Dog & Duck. This is made worse by the fact that we are having to pay an extra £1 per game on top of last seasons prices, an increase which is supposed to be going directly on the playing budget to help compensate for the tougher league we are in this season (although IMO the NLD1S is actually worse than the SLD1C last season.... and BTW, I'm not suggesting for one minute that the extra money isn't going on the playing budget!).

Last night was a step in the right direction in entertainment terms, albeit against the worst team in the league, and I actually thought Saturday was as well, but unfortunately the defence went home after the opening 20 minutes. There is still a long way to go though. We have been treated to some great football in the formative years of this club, with exciting, creative wing play from the likes of Wisniewski, Gearing, Koriya, Lamb-Johnson, Rogers, Hoban, Richards, and even Andy Hall when he could be bothered. The club is about to embark on its toughest challenge to date, moving to a new ground which is likely to be a considerable distance from our Rushden/Higham/Irthlingborough home, and instead of maintaining (or even increasing) the existing fans' enthusiasm for the club, and attracting new ones, we are putting people off with drab home performances and strikers having to play out of position because we've had no wingers all season (the return of Fazel has been positive, but his impact is not the same as it was when he was 2 years younger and playing in the league below).

And don't get me started on the right back situation!

Despite the negatives we are in a very good position in the league, but football is an entertainment business, not just a results one. To quote the great Johan Cruyff:

Quality without results is pointless. Results without quality is boring.

[Trek]

I'll give you a quote from another famous footballer, who I used to watch as a teenager namely Danny Blanchflower.

“The great fallacy is that the game is first and last about winning. It is nothing of the kind. The game is about glory, it is about doing things in style and with a flourish, about going out and beating the other lot, not waiting for them to die of boredom.”

[Formic]

Those who haven't done the Fans' Survey can give their thoughts on what might impact on attendances - http://www.afcdiamonds.com/afc-rushden- ... ans-survey