All Time Diamonds XI: Striker

wewantourdarbyback · Post by **wewantourdarbyback** » Sun Mar 07, 2010 10:04 pm

So after 10 votes we come to our penultimate choice and our final choice of player. We've been blessed with a number of great strikers over the years and we have 8 to choose from here. It wasn't an easy choice by an stretch of the imagination and a few that were suggested haven't made it into our short-list Please remember you have two votes for this. So as usual click on the name for more info:

Mickey Nuttell arrived at Nene park in 1993 for the princely sum of £10,000 and would go on to make 115 appearances and score 63 goals before leaving the club in 1996. He was a member of the team that won the Beazer Homes Midlands Division top scoring with 29 goals. He left the club in March 1996 to join Burton Albion and would go on to play for a number of non league teams, in 2008 he joined Boston United for a 4th spell.

Onandi Lowe exploded onto the scene in December 2001 with a goal on his début against Bristol Rovers. He would go on to maintain a prodigious goals/game ratio scoring 52 goals in just 97 appearances. He was the clubs top scorer in all three of his seasons with the club before he joined other top players in the mass exodus as the clubs finances crumbled. He was a key member of the Division 2 championship with the class that saw him appear at the world cup finals shining through constantly. Even with out the goals, his free kick routines will be long remembered by Diamonds fans.

Duane Darby. What do you say about Duane Darby? No one has ever provoked the same feelings in Diamonds fans as Duane did during his stay at Nene Park. During his 130 games for the club he scored 51 goals. He joined the club in 2000 for £120,000 from Notts County and set the standard for his time at the club by scoring in each of his first 5 games. He immediately became a fans favourite, cementing that position with 2 goals against K*ttering at Rockingham Road to give the Diamonds a 2-0 victory after having gone down to 10 men. He left the club in 2003 having won both the conference and Division 3 with the club and joined Shrewsbury who he was also help get promotion back into the league.

Simeon Jackson was another product of the youth system at Nene Park. He made his first team debut against Northampton in 2004. It was at the back end of the following season that he began to make his mark with a number of goals that almost kept the team in the league. Over the next two seasons back in the conference he would be the clubs top scorer and was arguably on his way to being the league's top scorer in the 2007/8 season before an £150,000 move to Gillingham materialised. He had made 104 appearances and scored 43 goals for the club.

If anyone has made a bigger impact at a club in as short a time as Billy Sharp then I have yet to see them. Sharp joined RDFC on loan from Sheffield United in January 2005 and could easily be argued to have kept the club in the league with 9 goals in his 16 appearances. He also scored one of the most memorable goals in the clubs history, breaking Northampton hearts in the 90th minute of the clubs first ever home league derby. He has continued his outstanding record in higher divisions for Scunthorpe and Doncaster.

Darren Collins is Rushden and Diamonds record goal scorer by some margin. Stats of 152 goals in 288 appearances show how important Darren was to the club establishing itself as a serious contender for a place in the league. During the 94/95 and 95/96 seasons he scored 40 and 35 goals respectively and would repeat the 35 goal mark again in 97/98 winning every POTS award available. He joined K*ttering in 2000 and is currently manager of Cogenhoe United.

Justin Jackson's time at Rushden was reasonably short and sweet. After joining in the summer of 2000 from Morecambe he went on to form a crucial partnership with Duane Darby that saw the club win the Conference championship. He scored 20 goals in his 53 appearances but left the club soon after promotion to the League to join Accrington.

Dale Watkins arrived at Nene Park in January 1993 and scored a hat trick in his first full start for the club he would score 6 more hat tricks in his four seasons at the club. He scored a total of 98 goals in 162 appearances as he struck up unstoppable partnerships with Mickey Nuttell and Darren Collins. His time at the club was ushered to an end by the arrival of Carl Alford in 1996 and he joined Gloucester soon afterwards. He ended his playing career in 2006 while at Yaxley.

Other players who were on the long list included Kevin Wilkin and Carl Alford (and from one of our number Warren Patmore ;) ).

Next Up: Manager

DiamondsFan · Post by **DiamondsFan** » Sun Mar 07, 2010 10:56 pm

Lowe and Darby for me.

davealbon · Post by **davealbon** » Sun Mar 07, 2010 11:15 pm

One of the easiest and the most difficult choices so far for me. I don't think there's any doubt that Darby and Lowe will run away with this vote, but the easy vote for me was Darren Collins. He had everything you could possibly want in a striker; quick, strong, good in the air, two good feet and a scoring record that speaks for itself. It says it all when, after an injury hit season in which Dazza 'only' scored 19 goals, a number of supporters were getting on his back because of his 'disappointing' contribution!

The difficult choice was between two complete opposites; Onandi Lowe (the best player to represent the club IMO) and Duane Darby (probably my favourite player ever). Lowe was lazy and frustrating, only bothered to turn up to training on certain days of the week, and..... well, we all know the rest! But when he wanted to he could be absolutely brilliant. He could change games in the blink of an eye, and scored goals that no one else in the lower leagues could even dream of scoring.

On the flip side, Duane was the most committed, hard working player you'll ever see. He may not have had anything like the ability that Lowe had, but his attitude more than made up for it, and he was a proper predator in the box. His two goals against the scum alone make him an all time Rushden legend.

However, head overruled heart this time and Lowe's ability coupled with the fact that his arrival at the club seemed to transform us from an average Division 3 side to one of the top Division 3 sides wins him the vote.

davealbon · Post by **davealbon** » Sun Mar 07, 2010 11:18 pm

wewantourdarbyback wrote:Other players who were on the long list included Kevin Wilkin and Carl Alford (and from one of our number Warren Patmore ;) ).

Did anyone nominate Ranks?! ;)

Post by **BartonRaz** » Mon Mar 08, 2010 12:21 am

davealbon wrote:
wewantourdarbyback wrote:Other players who were on the long list included Kevin Wilkin and Carl Alford (and from one of our number Warren Patmore ;) ).
Did anyone nominate Ranks?! ;)

I did!!!!!

Go on, tear me apart. ;)

His goal record is better than most people probably realise, and the SS final goal was so memorable. I didn't nominate him in the top 8, just offered his name as someone else who deserved recognition.

By the way, i'm certain Justin Jackson left us to go to Doncaster, in what is still our record transfer fee for a player....

With regards to the vote itself. I picked Darren Collins and Onandi Lowe. As everyone knows Onandi is my favorite by a mile, but there was nothing between the other two really. Collins was just more clinical, he seemed to score at least once every time i went to a game!

srusrdfc · Post by **srusrdfc** » Mon Mar 08, 2010 9:19 am

Duane Dary and Billy Sharp for me

AndyKirkup · Post by **AndyKirkup** » Mon Mar 08, 2010 10:26 am

If all-time top goalscorer Darren Collins doesn't get into the all-time 11 then something is wrong! His contribution to the club in the lower leagues was phenomenal.

I've gone for Duane over Onandi Lowe, he really is a legend.

TheIncognitoKid · Post by **TheIncognitoKid** » Mon Mar 08, 2010 11:23 am

davealbon wrote:One of the easiest and the most difficult choices so far for me. I don't think there's any doubt that Darby and Lowe will run away with this vote, but the easy vote for me was Darren Collins. He had everything you could possibly want in a striker; quick, strong, good in the air, two good feet and a scoring record that speaks for itself. It says it all when, after an injury hit season in which Dazza 'only' scored 19 goals, a number of supporters were getting on his back because of his 'disappointing' contribution!

The difficult choice was between two complete opposites; Onandi Lowe (the best player to represent the club IMO) and Duane Darby (probably my favourite player ever). Lowe was lazy and frustrating, only bothered to turn up to training on certain days of the week, and..... well, we all know the rest! But when he wanted to he could be absolutely brilliant. He could change games in the blink of an eye, and scored goals that no one else in the lower leagues could even dream of scoring.

On the flip side, Duane was the most committed, hard working player you'll ever see. He may not have had anything like the ability that Lowe had, but his attitude more than made up for it, and he was a proper predator in the box. His two goals against the scum alone make him an all time Rushden legend.

However, head overruled heart this time and Lowe's ability coupled with the fact that his arrival at the club seemed to transform us from an average Division 3 side to one of the top Division 3 sides wins him the vote.

I remember Michael McElhatton quoting somewhere that in training, Lowe was sometimes impossible to get the ball off and one of the best players he's ever played with!

davealbon · Post by **davealbon** » Mon Mar 08, 2010 11:54 am

TheIncognitoKid wrote:I remember Michael McElhatton quoting somewhere that in training, Lowe was sometimes impossible to get the ball off and one of the best players he's ever played with!

When he turned up! I remember an interview with OBN on Radio Diamonds once prior to a Tuesday night game, where the interviewer asked him if we had a fully fit squad to choose from. Talbot replied along the lines of "Yeah, everyone trained yesterday, well apart from Onandi Lowe. Onandi doesn't like training on Mondays!" :lol:

Duffman · Post by **Duffman** » Mon Mar 08, 2010 1:40 pm

Super Daz and Darbs for me