The unofficial AFC Rushden & Diamonds messageboard

I haven't posted on here for a little while but I've been reading with interest and astonishment as events have unfolded. I'm one of the old school who's been in attendance at Nene Park for much of the last 20 years and have witnessed some glorious highs and some terrible lows in that time. During the nineties and our rise through the leagues I was in my early twenties, single and could spend my weeks attending home and away and had some fantastic adventures along the way meeting fellow fans and forging freindships that are still as strong today.

The news today that it looks like it's all over is incredibly sad, not just because a once great football club has seemingly died, but because all of my memories of that time are also consigned to history. The club was more than football, for those years in the ninties and early noughties it was most of my life, my drinking buddies, my weekend excursions and my nights away in strange shitty little towns up and down the country. I have immense pride even now, despite the downturn in our fortunes, whenever I drive past Nene Park, but to think that K*ttering Town will soon be calling it their home leaves me feeling cold and empty. I can't blame K*ttering or Ladaak for jumping at the chance to move in and from a business point of view it makes perfect sense. But I wonder if they will ever truly be able to call it their home and have the same pride in the place that I have. I seriously doubt it, however if it comes to be, and it looks like it may now, I shalln't be in attendance and I think many of you will feel the same. I wish them luck and genuinley hope they can have a brighter future than us, but for me Nene Park is Rushden & Diamonds, and Rushden & Diamonds is Nene Park. The dream is over.

Well said that man

My thoughts exactly !!

Agreed.

Yep agreed. I think Cousins will end up shafting K*ttering though. As soon as they've moved in he can dictate how much he wants in terms of rent. Pickering will have bulldozed RR and then what'll happen to them?

Sara Pascoe wrote:Yep agreed. I think Cousins will end up shafting K*ttering though. As soon as they've moved in he can dictate how much he wants in terms of rent. Pickering will have bulldozed RR and then what'll happen to them?

How we should love Pickering ;)

Couldn't have said it any better Chorlton; those five years at the end of the 90's and the start of this century were fantastic, brilliant times, not just for the football but for the laugh we had along the way.

Most of it, sponsored by Becks, the beer of Champions, was just an amazing blur, different incidents keep popping into my head, most, no, all involving beer.

Can't really pick out one game but the away game at Woking the season we won the Conference was one of the best highlights followed by the train to Carlisle and any away trip involving the Craddle!

Trying to steal the dog at Stevenage, the Summer of 75, ringing up Talk Sport, throwing a pie into the Morecambe box, steeling the stools from Costa, handing out leaflets at the service station of the M5, sticking porn on peoples cars, DW stag trip to York, beating up the kid at Dover, telling Talbot to buy porn for the players, telling Talbot to f*** off at the Craddle, telling the Kid at Forest Green to f*** off and receiving a quiet word from the police a week later, stealing coats at Dover, jonny climbing the flag in Carlisle, leaving you by the side of the M6, the fight in the Woking terrace, contraband bacardi from the pub near Woking, drinking Becks in the terrace at Worcester, loo roll fight on way to Dover, standing on a table in a Carlisle pub with a bottle of champagne in hand singing "we are going up", sliding off the steps at Kingstonian with Brady laughing, Carl Heggs at Kiddy, shitting in the system at Kiddy, DW running across the pitch at Worcester to celebrate with Darby after he scored the winner against Telford.

And then there was two messy pre season trips to Dublin, siting in the dug out with Darby at Home Farm Everton I think, asking him if he thought we would win the league, he's response automatically earning him legend status, "If I didn't think so I wouldn't ****ing be here"*.

These are just off the top of my head, every weekend the season we went up was like this, everything else is a blur.

Brilliant times, amazing drunken away games, they stand out more then the success in some ways.

* Of course that was over ten years ago and I was very drunk, but he did say "I wouldn't ****ing be here" in a menacing tone.

if the season starts and we're not in any division, we should all meet in the railway and get right royally pissed.

In some ways, if we did survive and end up in the Southern League somewhere, the thoughts of drunken away days out seem very appealing, lot more fun in someways then following the Diamonds in the League.

rudolph_hucker wrote:

Sara Pascoe wrote:Yep agreed. I think Cousins will end up shafting K*ttering though. As soon as they've moved in he can dictate how much he wants in terms of rent. Pickering will have bulldozed RR and then what'll happen to them?

How we should love Pickering ;)

Not sure about that, I only have good memories of RR; Sam Smith's late equaliser, Aaron and Byrne shushing the 12 year olds, Tomlin sprinting away and slotting home and Dale letting us know that we could all go mental.