The unofficial AFC Rushden & Diamonds messageboard

A great 6-0 win from the youth team in what was their last game for the forseeable future. Personally i am very sad to see this go, have always enjoyed watching them i also feel sorry for the lads that will be lost to us now. Good luck boys wherever you go. Not every one of them wants or can get to Northampton for the New Academy

STAGMAN wrote:A great 6-0 win from the youth team in what was their last game for the forseeable future. Personally i am very sad to see this go, have always enjoyed watching them i also feel sorry for the lads that will be lost to us now. Good luck boys wherever you go. No tvery one of them wants or can get to Northampton for the New Accademy

I'd like to echo all of that. There was a definite "end of an era" feel about tonight's game, and so it was nice that the very last touch by a Diamonds U18 NSYL player was a bullet headed goal from Jamie Inwood (his first for the club). It was also good to see that all the U18 regulars were available for the game - let's hope they all find clubs at a decent level going forwards.

Let's hope the Academy approach serves its purpose, and that local lads do take advantage of what it might offer.

I guess there were about a dozen people who saw both the first and the last game of this side.

I'd like to thank all those who've given up their time for the past three seasons, on and off the pitch, to give the club a set-up at this level it can be proud of.

The final set of stats updates for the season were the U18 stats to include tonight's two games, and these can be found on the website - http://www.afcdiamonds.com/201314-u18-stats, and the fixture / results grid is also finalised . Again I'd like to thank all those who have made such sterling efforts to update these so promptly throughout a disjointed season (as well as the Club Secretary for facing all the challenges of fielding this team during the past 3 seasons).

I got there for the second half and thought the team played well.

Some interesting points, there were four Academy Under 18's in the team, it would have been 5 but for illness.

In the last two games you can see that Andy and Marcin have added some game craft to the technical ability instilled by Mark Walsh earlier on in the season.

Some fine words - http://www.afcdiamonds.com/afc-rushden- ... l-campaign