[ Tues 5th Apr ] v Arlesey KO 7.45pm SL1DC Away

[TwinkleToesTomlin]

Last night I wanted to post on here for the first time in a long time. I was so angry, disillusioned and upset. What has happened to my team???

I resisted and laid in bed analysing.

In the first half we played well. On another day we could have had two or three goals. Close misses, balls cleared off the line, good saves by there keeper and a great penalty save from 'Finners'. A positive first half based on recent performances. I looked forward to another positive display in the second half.

Then the game changer. The penalty. yes a poor ref decision, but the decision was made and the goal given. For me this is where it all went wrong from players and management. We lost our discipline, spending more time moaning at the ref. as a consequence we also lost our shape and purpose. Yes I believe it was a poor decision but at this point leadership should have stepped in on the field and off. Focus, encouragement, instructions from the bench are all phrases that come to mind. But it didn't happen. Jack Ashton got himself needlessly booked for continuing to nip at the ref's ear about the decision and immediately put pressure on himself for the remainder of the game. (only picking on Jack as an example) The bench spent the next 10 minutes telling the ref he was an embarrassment instead of motivating and working on the team.

Mr Abbey meanwhile was coaching from the side-lines. motivating, encouraging, switching things to push on. It was interesting that the same Mr Abbey also seemed to be agreeing with Poor Ref decisions openly with our bench. may be I am giving undeserved credit but this seemed to fuel further anger toward the Ref by our bench. Very clever kidology.

Where is our midfield? We do not have anyone moving forward from our holding position in midfield to fill that 'second ball' gap behind our strikers. I don't know how many times Elliot Sandy was making this point during the game.

I don't agree that the coaching staff need to be sacked. What good at this stage will that do? They have been successful. May be we need to get back to the basics and concentrate during the game on motivating, encouraging, making tactical switches as necessary with our team rather than concentrate on the Ref. Also the natural Leaders within the team need to step up, invoke discipline, encourage, motivate. And lastly, us fans. We need to do our bit. I know its easy to verbally moan and criticise. I know because I can and was one of them last night. I must have sounded like a grumpy old man. Well, actually I am; but I have made up my mind to encourage the team to the best of my ability for the rest of the season.

Post of the season.

[Dowlo]

Wow! I'm sure half the posts on here were written in the heat of the moment having just watched, what sounds like another bad/awful performance.

DiamondBarmy has to be the most ridiculous 1st post I have ever read! They must be either a troll or a moron! I'm guessing the final one.

I don't deny that we are having a bit of a "mini crisis" and the players we have signed in recent weeks appear to have done little or nothing to help our cause or improve performances, however at the time of signing them did anyone on here say "ooh I don't like the look of that player", " he won't be any good" etc etc. No! Almost all the comments were positive and everyone was excited to have them on board as they have "experience" and are "proven players at this level". The fact is though it hasn't worked.

That doesn't ultimately make Peaksy and Biffa unsuitable for the job though, based on the players pedigree any manager would expected them to have done better, so granted they brought them in but the players have to shoulder most of the blame for the sub standard performances.

Quite why so many players were brought in so late I don't know, but lessons would have been learned from it I'm sure and a squad rebuild will inevitably happen in the summer. I would almost off load most of the February signings and start with the old core of the team that got us to the top of the table, and add the right players to complement them best. Not necessarily big names players from leagues above. That could mean signing young hungry players from the UCL or lower place teams at our level.

Oh and bringing back Alfie Taylor (I've seen his name all over twitter) is not the answer! He is a club legend but he left for a reason and he is not what we need right now.

All this has gone to show that we 1. Perhaps we over achieved the first half of the season 2. We miss Bunting and Sam Brown more than ever 3. We are not ready to step up a league.

I know it's been mentioned before but we have no divine right to get promotion after promotion and glorious performance after glorious performance! You have to take the rough with the smooth. The target was higher mid-table/play offs back in August and we are still likely to achieve that. The way we have got there is disappointing, but nevertheless we are likely to achieve what we set out to do.

Imagine if we were to get in the play-offs, win them and then get promoted. Next season would be a season of struggle and more than likely result in a relegation battle. Which judging by supports reaction to be a bad run like this would result in mass suicides and people demanding the resignation of the board, players and manager every other week.

A sense of perspective is needed like SouthRushdenJFC has already mentioned, the upward climb can't continue forever. We are not in a position to keep climbing, things like the ground have to be sorted first. If that means 5-10 years of Southern Central Division Football to make sure the club is in a good position on and off the field enabling us to go up and STAY UP, the so be it. You may see crowds drop for a while and it may not be constant entertainment and win win win football, but so what. If that's what is needed to make sure the club plies it's trade at a decent level for the long term then so be it.

There's a reason we chose to stick with AFCR&D and that's because we were the hardcore few left after the demise of the old club that didn't want the name of Rushden and Diamonds to be wiped off the face off the footballing world. Back in the summer of 2011 we all agreed to support the club to help it move forward and hopefully regain it's place back near the higher reaches of the Non- League Footballing Pyramid. I don't recall however that anyone mentioned we'll go up every year and it would all be fantastic along the way. With our target of Conf South/North or Conference achieved with in the first 10 years so we can all sit back and take it easy.

This is our first real sticky patch, and yet we still find ourselves in the play-offs. To the outside world and other teams, we must seem like a bunch of spoilt children, throwing our toys out the pram and demanding a change of management etc. Lord knows what it would be like if we were facing relegation! Which by the way in the future of this club is likely to happen at some stage.

So please take a step back look at where we are and where we have come from. Our time will come, if you wanted an easy ride as a football fan you would have chose to be one of the sad b*stards down the pub in their Sports Direct Man Utd shirt on every week. But you chose AFC Rushden and Diamonds, through thick and thin. We will one day be back in the higher reaches of the pyramid, but it will take time, hard work and ALL the supporters backing.

See you on the 12th for Barton at Home. I'm not expecting to be entertained, or even for a guaranteed 3 points but I hope to see a decent turn out of fans who are all there supporting AFCR&D.

Rant/Post over!

[corby diamond]

^^^^^^ spot on dowlo

[Trek]

The Club's Twitter feed is run by a volunteer on matchday. At the start of the match commentary, you will find whomever is posting at the match tagged with their @ name.
Their comments are their own opinion of the game and are not necessarily representative of any Board member.

Thank you for clarifying that point. I have noticed that the particular tweet that I was referring to in my post has been deleted.

[SouthRushdenJFC]

Wow! I'm sure half the posts on here were written in the heat of the moment having just watched, what sounds like another bad/awful performance.

DiamondBarmy has to be the most ridiculous 1st post I have ever read! They must be either a troll or a moron! I'm guessing the final one.

I don't deny that we are having a bit of a "mini crisis" and the players we have signed in recent weeks appear to have done little or nothing to help our cause or improve performances, however at the time of signing them did anyone on here say "ooh I don't like the look of that player", " he won't be any good" etc etc. No! Almost all the comments were positive and everyone was excited to have them on board as they have "experience" and are "proven players at this level". The fact is though it hasn't worked.

That doesn't ultimately make Peaksy and Biffa unsuitable for the job though, based on the players pedigree any manager would expected them to have done better, so granted they brought them in but the players have to shoulder most of the blame for the sub standard performances.

Quite why so many players were brought in so late I don't know, but lessons would have been learned from it I'm sure and a squad rebuild will inevitably happen in the summer. I would almost off load most of the February signings and start with the old core of the team that got us to the top of the table, and add the right players to complement them best. Not necessarily big names players from leagues above. That could mean signing young hungry players from the UCL or lower place teams at our level.

Oh and bringing back Alfie Taylor (I've seen his name all over twitter) is not the answer! He is a club legend but he left for a reason and he is not what we need right now.

All this has gone to show that we 1. Perhaps we over achieved the first half of the season 2. We miss Bunting and Sam Brown more than ever 3. We are not ready to step up a league.

I know it's been mentioned before but we have no divine right to get promotion after promotion and glorious performance after glorious performance! You have to take the rough with the smooth. The target was higher mid-table/play offs back in August and we are still likely to achieve that. The way we have got there is disappointing, but nevertheless we are likely to achieve what we set out to do.

Imagine if we were to get in the play-offs, win them and then get promoted. Next season would be a season of struggle and more than likely result in a relegation battle. Which judging by supports reaction to be a bad run like this would result in mass suicides and people demanding the resignation of the board, players and manager every other week.

A sense of perspective is needed like SouthRushdenJFC has already mentioned, the upward climb can't continue forever. We are not in a position to keep climbing, things like the ground have to be sorted first. If that means 5-10 years of Southern Central Division Football to make sure the club is in a good position on and off the field enabling us to go up and STAY UP, the so be it. You may see crowds drop for a while and it may not be constant entertainment and win win win football, but so what. If that's what is needed to make sure the club plies it's trade at a decent level for the long term then so be it.

There's a reason we chose to stick with AFCR&D and that's because we were the hardcore few left after the demise of the old club that didn't want the name of Rushden and Diamonds to be wiped off the face off the footballing world. Back in the summer of 2011 we all agreed to support the club to help it move forward and hopefully regain it's place back near the higher reaches of the Non- League Footballing Pyramid. I don't recall however that anyone mentioned we'll go up every year and it would all be fantastic along the way. With our target of Conf South/North or Conference achieved with in the first 10 years so we can all sit back and take it easy.

This is our first real sticky patch, and yet we still find ourselves in the play-offs. To the outside world and other teams, we must seem like a bunch of spoilt children, throwing our toys out the pram and demanding a change of management etc. Lord knows what it would be like if we were facing relegation! Which by the way in the future of this club is likely to happen at some stage.

So please take a step back look at where we are and where we have come from. Our time will come, if you wanted an easy ride as a football fan you would have chose to be one of the sad b*stards down the pub in their Sports Direct Man Utd shirt on every week. But you chose AFC Rushden and Diamonds, through thick and thin. We will one day be back in the higher reaches of the pyramid, but it will take time, hard work and ALL the supporters backing.

See you on the 12th for Barton at Home. I'm not expecting to be entertained, or even for a guaranteed 3 points but I hope to see a decent turn out of fans who are all there supporting AFCR&D.

Rant/Post over!

I think I love you Dowlo

[TwinkleToesTomlin]

Wow! I'm sure half the posts on here were written in the heat of the moment having just watched, what sounds like another bad/awful performance.

DiamondBarmy has to be the most ridiculous 1st post I have ever read! They must be either a troll or a moron! I'm guessing the final one.

I don't deny that we are having a bit of a "mini crisis" and the players we have signed in recent weeks appear to have done little or nothing to help our cause or improve performances, however at the time of signing them did anyone on here say "ooh I don't like the look of that player", " he won't be any good" etc etc. No! Almost all the comments were positive and everyone was excited to have them on board as they have "experience" and are "proven players at this level". The fact is though it hasn't worked.

That doesn't ultimately make Peaksy and Biffa unsuitable for the job though, based on the players pedigree any manager would expected them to have done better, so granted they brought them in but the players have to shoulder most of the blame for the sub standard performances.

Quite why so many players were brought in so late I don't know, but lessons would have been learned from it I'm sure and a squad rebuild will inevitably happen in the summer. I would almost off load most of the February signings and start with the old core of the team that got us to the top of the table, and add the right players to complement them best. Not necessarily big names players from leagues above. That could mean signing young hungry players from the UCL or lower place teams at our level.

Oh and bringing back Alfie Taylor (I've seen his name all over twitter) is not the answer! He is a club legend but he left for a reason and he is not what we need right now.

All this has gone to show that we 1. Perhaps we over achieved the first half of the season 2. We miss Bunting and Sam Brown more than ever 3. We are not ready to step up a league.

I know it's been mentioned before but we have no divine right to get promotion after promotion and glorious performance after glorious performance! You have to take the rough with the smooth. The target was higher mid-table/play offs back in August and we are still likely to achieve that. The way we have got there is disappointing, but nevertheless we are likely to achieve what we set out to do.

Imagine if we were to get in the play-offs, win them and then get promoted. Next season would be a season of struggle and more than likely result in a relegation battle. Which judging by supports reaction to be a bad run like this would result in mass suicides and people demanding the resignation of the board, players and manager every other week.

A sense of perspective is needed like SouthRushdenJFC has already mentioned, the upward climb can't continue forever. We are not in a position to keep climbing, things like the ground have to be sorted first. If that means 5-10 years of Southern Central Division Football to make sure the club is in a good position on and off the field enabling us to go up and STAY UP, the so be it. You may see crowds drop for a while and it may not be constant entertainment and win win win football, but so what. If that's what is needed to make sure the club plies it's trade at a decent level for the long term then so be it.

There's a reason we chose to stick with AFCR&D and that's because we were the hardcore few left after the demise of the old club that didn't want the name of Rushden and Diamonds to be wiped off the face off the footballing world. Back in the summer of 2011 we all agreed to support the club to help it move forward and hopefully regain it's place back near the higher reaches of the Non- League Footballing Pyramid. I don't recall however that anyone mentioned we'll go up every year and it would all be fantastic along the way. With our target of Conf South/North or Conference achieved with in the first 10 years so we can all sit back and take it easy.

This is our first real sticky patch, and yet we still find ourselves in the play-offs. To the outside world and other teams, we must seem like a bunch of spoilt children, throwing our toys out the pram and demanding a change of management etc. Lord knows what it would be like if we were facing relegation! Which by the way in the future of this club is likely to happen at some stage.

So please take a step back look at where we are and where we have come from. Our time will come, if you wanted an easy ride as a football fan you would have chose to be one of the sad b*stards down the pub in their Sports Direct Man Utd shirt on every week. But you chose AFC Rushden and Diamonds, through thick and thin. We will one day be back in the higher reaches of the pyramid, but it will take time, hard work and ALL the supporters backing.

See you on the 12th for Barton at Home. I'm not expecting to be entertained, or even for a guaranteed 3 points but I hope to see a decent turn out of fans who are all there supporting AFCR&D.

Rant/Post over!

I think I love you Dowlo

Wow! I'm sure half the posts on here were written in the heat of the moment having just watched, what sounds like another bad/awful performance.

DiamondBarmy has to be the most ridiculous 1st post I have ever read! They must be either a troll or a moron! I'm guessing the final one.

I don't deny that we are having a bit of a "mini crisis" and the players we have signed in recent weeks appear to have done little or nothing to help our cause or improve performances, however at the time of signing them did anyone on here say "ooh I don't like the look of that player", " he won't be any good" etc etc. No! Almost all the comments were positive and everyone was excited to have them on board as they have "experience" and are "proven players at this level". The fact is though it hasn't worked.

That doesn't ultimately make Peaksy and Biffa unsuitable for the job though, based on the players pedigree any manager would expected them to have done better, so granted they brought them in but the players have to shoulder most of the blame for the sub standard performances.

Quite why so many players were brought in so late I don't know, but lessons would have been learned from it I'm sure and a squad rebuild will inevitably happen in the summer. I would almost off load most of the February signings and start with the old core of the team that got us to the top of the table, and add the right players to complement them best. Not necessarily big names players from leagues above. That could mean signing young hungry players from the UCL or lower place teams at our level.

Oh and bringing back Alfie Taylor (I've seen his name all over twitter) is not the answer! He is a club legend but he left for a reason and he is not what we need right now.

All this has gone to show that we 1. Perhaps we over achieved the first half of the season 2. We miss Bunting and Sam Brown more than ever 3. We are not ready to step up a league.

I know it's been mentioned before but we have no divine right to get promotion after promotion and glorious performance after glorious performance! You have to take the rough with the smooth. The target was higher mid-table/play offs back in August and we are still likely to achieve that. The way we have got there is disappointing, but nevertheless we are likely to achieve what we set out to do.

Imagine if we were to get in the play-offs, win them and then get promoted. Next season would be a season of struggle and more than likely result in a relegation battle. Which judging by supports reaction to be a bad run like this would result in mass suicides and people demanding the resignation of the board, players and manager every other week.

A sense of perspective is needed like SouthRushdenJFC has already mentioned, the upward climb can't continue forever. We are not in a position to keep climbing, things like the ground have to be sorted first. If that means 5-10 years of Southern Central Division Football to make sure the club is in a good position on and off the field enabling us to go up and STAY UP, the so be it. You may see crowds drop for a while and it may not be constant entertainment and win win win football, but so what. If that's what is needed to make sure the club plies it's trade at a decent level for the long term then so be it.

There's a reason we chose to stick with AFCR&D and that's because we were the hardcore few left after the demise of the old club that didn't want the name of Rushden and Diamonds to be wiped off the face off the footballing world. Back in the summer of 2011 we all agreed to support the club to help it move forward and hopefully regain it's place back near the higher reaches of the Non- League Footballing Pyramid. I don't recall however that anyone mentioned we'll go up every year and it would all be fantastic along the way. With our target of Conf South/North or Conference achieved with in the first 10 years so we can all sit back and take it easy.

This is our first real sticky patch, and yet we still find ourselves in the play-offs. To the outside world and other teams, we must seem like a bunch of spoilt children, throwing our toys out the pram and demanding a change of management etc. Lord knows what it would be like if we were facing relegation! Which by the way in the future of this club is likely to happen at some stage.

So please take a step back look at where we are and where we have come from. Our time will come, if you wanted an easy ride as a football fan you would have chose to be one of the sad b*stards down the pub in their Sports Direct Man Utd shirt on every week. But you chose AFC Rushden and Diamonds, through thick and thin. We will one day be back in the higher reaches of the pyramid, but it will take time, hard work and ALL the supporters backing.

See you on the 12th for Barton at Home. I'm not expecting to be entertained, or even for a guaranteed 3 points but I hope to see a decent turn out of fans who are all there supporting AFCR&D.

Rant/Post over!

I think I love you Dowlo

Somebody's got to!

That's all very well and good when your all snuggled up with the wife and cat in a lovely Suffolk country home, or enjoying a burger down Alfred Street ;)

[diamondsteve]

Wow! I'm sure half the posts on here were written in the heat of the moment having just watched, what sounds like another bad/awful performance.

DiamondBarmy has to be the most ridiculous 1st post I have ever read! They must be either a troll or a moron! I'm guessing the final one.

I don't deny that we are having a bit of a "mini crisis" and the players we have signed in recent weeks appear to have done little or nothing to help our cause or improve performances, however at the time of signing them did anyone on here say "ooh I don't like the look of that player", " he won't be any good" etc etc. No! Almost all the comments were positive and everyone was excited to have them on board as they have "experience" and are "proven players at this level". The fact is though it hasn't worked.

That doesn't ultimately make Peaksy and Biffa unsuitable for the job though, based on the players pedigree any manager would expected them to have done better, so granted they brought them in but the players have to shoulder most of the blame for the sub standard performances.

Quite why so many players were brought in so late I don't know, but lessons would have been learned from it I'm sure and a squad rebuild will inevitably happen in the summer. I would almost off load most of the February signings and start with the old core of the team that got us to the top of the table, and add the right players to complement them best. Not necessarily big names players from leagues above. That could mean signing young hungry players from the UCL or lower place teams at our level.

Oh and bringing back Alfie Taylor (I've seen his name all over twitter) is not the answer! He is a club legend but he left for a reason and he is not what we need right now.

All this has gone to show that we 1. Perhaps we over achieved the first half of the season 2. We miss Bunting and Sam Brown more than ever 3. We are not ready to step up a league.

I know it's been mentioned before but we have no divine right to get promotion after promotion and glorious performance after glorious performance! You have to take the rough with the smooth. The target was higher mid-table/play offs back in August and we are still likely to achieve that. The way we have got there is disappointing, but nevertheless we are likely to achieve what we set out to do.

Imagine if we were to get in the play-offs, win them and then get promoted. Next season would be a season of struggle and more than likely result in a relegation battle. Which judging by supports reaction to be a bad run like this would result in mass suicides and people demanding the resignation of the board, players and manager every other week.

A sense of perspective is needed like SouthRushdenJFC has already mentioned, the upward climb can't continue forever. We are not in a position to keep climbing, things like the ground have to be sorted first. If that means 5-10 years of Southern Central Division Football to make sure the club is in a good position on and off the field enabling us to go up and STAY UP, the so be it. You may see crowds drop for a while and it may not be constant entertainment and win win win football, but so what. If that's what is needed to make sure the club plies it's trade at a decent level for the long term then so be it.

There's a reason we chose to stick with AFCR&D and that's because we were the hardcore few left after the demise of the old club that didn't want the name of Rushden and Diamonds to be wiped off the face off the footballing world. Back in the summer of 2011 we all agreed to support the club to help it move forward and hopefully regain it's place back near the higher reaches of the Non- League Footballing Pyramid. I don't recall however that anyone mentioned we'll go up every year and it would all be fantastic along the way. With our target of Conf South/North or Conference achieved with in the first 10 years so we can all sit back and take it easy.

This is our first real sticky patch, and yet we still find ourselves in the play-offs. To the outside world and other teams, we must seem like a bunch of spoilt children, throwing our toys out the pram and demanding a change of management etc. Lord knows what it would be like if we were facing relegation! Which by the way in the future of this club is likely to happen at some stage.

So please take a step back look at where we are and where we have come from. Our time will come, if you wanted an easy ride as a football fan you would have chose to be one of the sad b*stards down the pub in their Sports Direct Man Utd shirt on every week. But you chose AFC Rushden and Diamonds, through thick and thin. We will one day be back in the higher reaches of the pyramid, but it will take time, hard work and ALL the supporters backing.

See you on the 12th for Barton at Home. I'm not expecting to be entertained, or even for a guaranteed 3 points but I hope to see a decent turn out of fans who are all there supporting AFCR&D.

Rant/Post over!

I think I love you Dowlo

I think you two are from the "be glad we have a team" group . Zzzzz you could copy half of that post and post it in the next or so when we have a bad spell.

Forget what others think dowlo. We the loyal fans know what's going on and it's a bit more than going through a bad spell.

Losing bunting is massive for us. We had a spine in the side finers ,dolman ,bunts (you could always hear bunts bolocking the team) Lorraine which never stopped running and well could say Berwick as he always gave 100%. Now we have a side without a spine and I think that sums it all up.....

[Oundle Diamond #2]

Wow! I'm sure half the posts on here were written in the heat of the moment having just watched, what sounds like another bad/awful performance.

DiamondBarmy has to be the most ridiculous 1st post I have ever read! They must be either a troll or a moron! I'm guessing the final one.

I don't deny that we are having a bit of a "mini crisis" and the players we have signed in recent weeks appear to have done little or nothing to help our cause or improve performances, however at the time of signing them did anyone on here say "ooh I don't like the look of that player", " he won't be any good" etc etc. No! Almost all the comments were positive and everyone was excited to have them on board as they have "experience" and are "proven players at this level". The fact is though it hasn't worked.

That doesn't ultimately make Peaksy and Biffa unsuitable for the job though, based on the players pedigree any manager would expected them to have done better, so granted they brought them in but the players have to shoulder most of the blame for the sub standard performances.

Quite why so many players were brought in so late I don't know, but lessons would have been learned from it I'm sure and a squad rebuild will inevitably happen in the summer. I would almost off load most of the February signings and start with the old core of the team that got us to the top of the table, and add the right players to complement them best. Not necessarily big names players from leagues above. That could mean signing young hungry players from the UCL or lower place teams at our level.

Oh and bringing back Alfie Taylor (I've seen his name all over twitter) is not the answer! He is a club legend but he left for a reason and he is not what we need right now.

All this has gone to show that we 1. Perhaps we over achieved the first half of the season 2. We miss Bunting and Sam Brown more than ever 3. We are not ready to step up a league.

I know it's been mentioned before but we have no divine right to get promotion after promotion and glorious performance after glorious performance! You have to take the rough with the smooth. The target was higher mid-table/play offs back in August and we are still likely to achieve that. The way we have got there is disappointing, but nevertheless we are likely to achieve what we set out to do.

Imagine if we were to get in the play-offs, win them and then get promoted. Next season would be a season of struggle and more than likely result in a relegation battle. Which judging by supports reaction to be a bad run like this would result in mass suicides and people demanding the resignation of the board, players and manager every other week.

A sense of perspective is needed like SouthRushdenJFC has already mentioned, the upward climb can't continue forever. We are not in a position to keep climbing, things like the ground have to be sorted first. If that means 5-10 years of Southern Central Division Football to make sure the club is in a good position on and off the field enabling us to go up and STAY UP, the so be it. You may see crowds drop for a while and it may not be constant entertainment and win win win football, but so what. If that's what is needed to make sure the club plies it's trade at a decent level for the long term then so be it.

There's a reason we chose to stick with AFCR&D and that's because we were the hardcore few left after the demise of the old club that didn't want the name of Rushden and Diamonds to be wiped off the face off the footballing world. Back in the summer of 2011 we all agreed to support the club to help it move forward and hopefully regain it's place back near the higher reaches of the Non- League Footballing Pyramid. I don't recall however that anyone mentioned we'll go up every year and it would all be fantastic along the way. With our target of Conf South/North or Conference achieved with in the first 10 years so we can all sit back and take it easy.

This is our first real sticky patch, and yet we still find ourselves in the play-offs. To the outside world and other teams, we must seem like a bunch of spoilt children, throwing our toys out the pram and demanding a change of management etc. Lord knows what it would be like if we were facing relegation! Which by the way in the future of this club is likely to happen at some stage.

So please take a step back look at where we are and where we have come from. Our time will come, if you wanted an easy ride as a football fan you would have chose to be one of the sad b*stards down the pub in their Sports Direct Man Utd shirt on every week. But you chose AFC Rushden and Diamonds, through thick and thin. We will one day be back in the higher reaches of the pyramid, but it will take time, hard work and ALL the supporters backing.

See you on the 12th for Barton at Home. I'm not expecting to be entertained, or even for a guaranteed 3 points but I hope to see a decent turn out of fans who are all there supporting AFCR&D.

Rant/Post over!

Despite all the chat you've given me in the past week on here, and the fact we may disagree on Brad Harris and premier league football, I've got to say this post is completely spot on. Some people are throwing their toys out the pram.

[SouthRushdenJFC]

I think you two are from the "be glad we have a team" group . Zzzzz you could copy half of that post and post it in the next or so when we have a bad spell.

Forget what others think dowlo. We the loyal fans know what's going on and it's a bit more than going through a bad spell.

Losing bunting is massive for us. We had a spine in the side finers ,dolman ,bunts (you could always hear bunts bolocking the team) Lorraine which never stopped running and well could say Berwick as he always gave 100%. Now we have a side without a spine and I think that sums it all up.....

You should all be glad you have a team. Bad spells are going to happen. They happened for Rushden & Diamonds, they happen for all teams. It's how you react to them that defines a club and at the moment there are too many knee jerk reactions calling for the manager to be sacked, calling players rubbish.

You for example Steve, 11th March you hailed the signing of Elliott Sandy as "massive", yet on the 12th you were asking what he was doing on the pitch. Stevenson 's signing got you "so excited" and you commended Peaksy on"a great bit of business" in January.

Yet here at the beginning of April everyone's rubbish.

Quite clearly you don't have a clue what's going on, evidenced by your quoting of a spine of five players, three of which are still in the team, one is injured and the other has only scored two goals in ten UCL Div 1 games.

We all know sport is emotive but everyone needs to keep a bit of perspective.

The alternative is to put yourself up for the board and change things from within rather than moan (stupidly in most cases) from without. management, players and board are there to be shot at. they know that when they take on the role, but I've yet to see anyone post a credible alternative.

I find this ridiculous, especially as it is twelve months to the day since promotion from the UCL was won.

[SouthRushdenJFC]

Somebody's got to!

That's all very well and good when your all snuggled up with the wife and cat in a lovely Suffolk country home, or enjoying a burger down Alfred Street ;)

No burgers at Alfred Street, We do pass the Co-op Sherbert Lemons round though and GT Grill deliver