The unofficial AFC Rushden & Diamonds messageboard

... Who do you think has the upper hand going into Mondays game?

Well as we have seen countless times, if anyone goes down the Oxford fans moan and the players surround the referee, in that sense we are screwed we will get very few decisions our way and will have to be careful when it comes to Bookings. if Tommo downer etc get booked on Monday do they miss the final or is it just sendings off? But we looked nervous first half but came on strong second half..I think Oxford will be nervous at home and we have a good chance to capitalize on that...we just have to make sure we focus and look less shaky. we can knick it, but it's going to be very tough... I'm glad it's an afternoon kick off, for some reason i feel that gives us a better chance...we play better in the day.

Come on you Whites or should I say Stripes!!!!!!

Well, while tonight ultimately means f*** all really with there being no away goals rule, I have to say it was a really enjoyable semi final (and obviously very nervewracking and tense as well!). Makes me realise how fantastic it is to be even involved in the playoffs, as it's great to be just a couple of hours away from playing at you know where and maybe even promotion, so no wonder it was such a fiery game at times.

Absolutely no doubt that we have a good chance on Monday. Not too hopeful referee wise, Oxford may very well get another lucky penalty decision there way but with a huge crowd there, Oxford may do what they've done in previous years with a big crowd and crumble under the pressure, so if we can get that crowd to turn on their players then our lads will have a super chance of snatching something

I was surprised by how open the game was for a play off game. We fought really well in the 2nd half and deserved the draw. Just hope the crowd don't influence the ref like they did when we played there earlier in the season.

Unfortuantly it's very likely that that will be the case, the Oxford fans seem to think every ref is against them all the time and as we saw tonight they moan a lot at the ref, so it's going to take an extremely strong ref (don't know whether one exists in this league) on Monday otherwise we'll see more decisions go against us I'm afraid, let's hope we don't have to rely on the officials though!