The unofficial AFC Rushden & Diamonds messageboard

SouthRushdenJFC wrote:Well, no one died. Bad misses from Ling and Alfie summed it up for me.

I'm often not impressed with the ref and that was certainly true today. He let their centre halves hang on Dunks all game and the foul on Long was a yard inside the box but he bottled the penalty decision.

Those things apart we didn't deserve anything from that came.

Its been like that ALL season with Dunks, granted not usually as bad as today, but time and time again this season have defenders held back, grabbed and shoved Dunks (and who can blame them!) and refs do absolutely f*ck all and it was particularly bad today, not even the linos gave anything. I wasn't at a good angle to judge the foul on LIng, but felt we should have had a penalty in the first half for a blatant shove in the back which I'm fairly sure would have been a foul anywhere else on the pitch. But what's done is done, poor ref or not, we deserve what we got today.

Another observation, for whatever reason,it was the second home match running we weren't attacking the PDB end in the second half when we're usually at our strongest.
It seems our fans are unable to lift the team when they are at the open river end.

Ever since the Welly 'away' game we've started to line up attacking the PDB in the first half, I really don't get it, and yeah, the home atmosphere dropped considerably (as it always does) when the fans spread out all over the ground and their fans taking the PDB only got louder.

One positive I can think of right now is that at least we've got the reward of a bye to the 2nd round next year and not having to play in the Vase til November. Long way off right now of course, but no doubt we'll have a strong chance of doing well again and hopefully they'll keep today in mind and learn from their mistakes.

Bigger shock than our result :-

Ashington lost to Wisbech.

Olly wrote: Ever since the Welly 'away' game we've started to line up attacking the PDB in the first half, I really don't get it, and yeah, the home atmosphere dropped considerably (as it always does) when the fans spread out all over the ground and their fans taking the PDB only got louder.

This was pointed out early last season, and Chris Hope then always lined up with the PDB to his back after the handshakes pre-match which was always the ritual at Nene Park if you recall. Irrespective of who wins the toss, teams rarely turn round on winning the toss unless they are seeking a win/sun advantage in the first half.
Parky or whoever is captain of the team needs to take note. ;) I felt that the St Andrews 'fans' were able to take advantage of occupying the vacant PDB terrace in the second half to give them terrific vocal support and they clearly loved it and their players responded accordingly. It appeared we surrendered home advantage.

MEMAN53 wrote:Bigger shock than our result :-

Ashington lost to Wisbech.

Whilst I don't necessarily agree as they are both step 5 teams, Wisbech showed our underperforming prima-donnas what might be achieved had they played to their potential.

It appears that the team is only interested when the sun shines and the pitch resembles a billiard table. We need a few "scrappers" and fast.

We were shit, however we must have earned a few quid today.

Frogerz wrote:We were shit, however we must have earned a few quid today.

Shared gate remember - gutted at the moment and drinking wine to compensate ;)

I can understand fans frustrations, we didn't play well, from what I saw of the game 8-)

massive learning curve today for the club, both on and off the pitch.
Most of the St Andrews "fans" were in fact Leicester city fans. There were occasions when it could have kicked off big time.

A big well done to Jason and Chas for making sure that nothing really bad happened, and a big well done to our "vocal" fans who showed some restraint when provoked by a certain section of St Andrews supporters, they get enough stick when we travel away, they were top notch today.

At the end of the day we lost a game of football to a team that wanted it more and didn't allow us to settle, fair play to them. For once we were the killed giant :?

The team needs your support more than ever now, the league is certainly not dead and we can pull it back, we did it last season, so we need to believe again. Put today to bed, have a glass of wine and relax, this is what football is all about, ups and downs. It is what memories are made of, and hopefully it will focus the team to greater things 8-)

Duke of Wimbourne wrote:
The team needs your support more than ever now, the league is certainly not dead and we can pull it back, we did it last season, so we need to believe again. Put today to bed, have a glass of wine and relax, this is what football is all about, ups and downs. It is what memories are made of, and hopefully it will focus the team to greater things 8-)

If Spalding had lost a few, you could say we could pull it back but they don't look like slipping up that many times. I don't think we could win every game between now and the end of the season but runners-up is a possibility

NO PASSION,,,,NO DESIRE....NO BELIEF....NO LEADRSHIP ....this kind of result has been coming for a few games ,,,,we can only play one way,,,hoofff to dunks ,hope he lays it off to some one(their number 5 won everything).
my view ------rest of the season =REBUILD (too many players went missing today,and why wait until 2 down before subs come,,,should have changed them half time,and where was bunts again???may have been a great player in his day but he aint no good to us if he don't play