[ Tue 2nd Apr ] AFC R&D v Brackley Town, KO 7:45pm, HSCF, @ SIXFIELDS

[Dazzler]

Jon Dunham's Verdict.

https://twitter.com/JonDunhamNT/status/ ... 7097231360



Andy Peaks' AFC Rushden & Diamonds were beaten on penalties in the final of the NFA Hillier Senior Cup

[Brownie]

The ineligible players issue will be brushed under the carpet and NFA will say special dispensation was asked for and given otherwise Brackley would have been unable to field a side. All bo..cks but as long as they believe it we must too.

[Brownie]

Interesting evening, not the greatest game I’ve ever watched but we did play at times some decent football, different line up for us but I guess it was at least accommodating.That was a very strong Brackley squad, only Baker & Ndlouv missing from the squad that played Southport Saturday and of the 2 who came in Sterling-James ? & Shaun Jeffers who I’ve known since he was 5 & has League experience with Covertry & Peterborough so no disgrace to be lever after 90 mins.
Football aside the night as a whole was a joke. No turnstiles open instead a handful of octogenarian with a bucket full of cash, sure an accurate record was kept of the crowd. Rip off bottled beer prices but don’t tell our bar manager he may get ideas enough stewards for a crowd of 3000 at a game that was never having anything but a very friendly atmosphere. And worst of all officials from the UCL trying unsuccessfully to perform way above their pay grade. I understand the Ref (who has not improved one jot in the past 5 years) is big in NFA ref circles so probably gave himself the gig as reward for “exceptional services to crap refereeing” and the Lino on our side would have missed it if an Apollo space ship had landed next to him. Any other Cup comp the officials are from level of highest club involved so why chuck a turd in a clear blue lake & hope it doesn’t muddy the waters. Still said ref had a nice presentation and photo shoot after the game so that was worth my £8. Food for the players f.in disgrace. No seating reserved for them, a large spread in one corner not for us, when our players did start coming in and assembly in a small corner with no seating a lady came over asked if they were Rushden and then plonked a tray of cheese sandwiches one of ham & one of cold pizza slices on a table, that was it. These lads all have jobs it had been a long day in the league hot food is expected, if Northampton couldn’t be arsed to do anything then NFA take something out of that bucket of cash & visit one of the many food outlets within 50 yards to get something hot as that’s what the players ended up doing themselves. I’m sure though in another room somewhere on site a very fine eating experience was being enjoyed by those important folk. And County FA’s throughout the country wonder why Clubs don’t take their premier Senior Cup seriously. Finally the irony of watching our new favourite steward who recently told off two Diamonds supporters for swearing, stand within earshot of that moron who will remain nameless while he hurled abuse at our dugout for most of the match and do nothing. Rant over glad to be back to the league Saturday.

[corby diamond]

Totally agree with what brownie said, wasn’t the greatest of games and not much was done in either half, but at times brackley showed their experience.. thought dolman might have won it but was somehow saved by the face of someone on the line..

Peaks I felt could have changed it slightly earlier as by 70 mins some of the lads were tiring.. looked as if he bought fresh legs on just to take a penalty (but that didn’t help )

Was nice to be back in a proper feel stadium although it was bitterly cold, but how they can get away with charging £2.20 for a tea bag and water..

And was the absolute moron brownie was referring too someone who was at diamonds years then jumped ship to the team up the road? Didn’t notice he was actually there until he was on his feet chanting miss miss as each player walked up.. no doubt when they get promotion then struggle he will find another team.. or will he show his face in his diamonds colours again

[TwinkleToesTomlin]

With the second largest budget in the competition this year and with Brackley Saints to pick from I would presume, surely they can muster together a squad that have played in previous rounds.

We had to comply against K*ttering, when we brought in Liversedge and Manship who we hadn't seen for months, so why don't Brackley?

Why don't the NFA just ammend their rules? I don't see why Prosser, although he did play, shouldn't have been allowed to?

[sussexdiamond]

Brackley could have named eleven eligible players and just had two subs. Plenty of teams we have played have named only three on occasion. As usual a good solid defensive performance. Collard probably passed his audition to be a Brackley player next season and Fairlamb to return to Hayden Road.

[HawkinsImages]

Afternoon all,

Just in case you aren’t on Facebook or Twitter, I’ll be posting the link to my photos on here as well for the rest of this season and any game we play for the future!

Shame we didn’t win last night but overall, I thought we were very solid with limited chances in the 90 minutes.

Anyway, enjoy the 292 photos I managed to get from the night.

https://hawkinsimages.smugmug.com/AFC-R ... ckley-Town

[BartonRaz]

If the game plan was to nullify the opposition then it worked, however it didn’t make for an entertaining game. To be honest I didn’t think our performance was as good as some are suggesting (and our Manager thought), although perhaps the high vantage point didn’t help as everything looked so slow from the top of the West Stand.

The main difference between the two teams was their use of the ball - our passing was largely poor. We also had a couple of passengers in an attacking sense. John Dean injected some pace at the end and seemed to worry them a bit, perhaps he could have been introduced a bit earlier and maybe there’s scope for using him as an out-and-out striker until the end of the season to offer something a bit different.

[therushden]

Did they give an official attendance?

[Brownie]

Did they give an official attendance?

As the old saying goes, “how long does it take four octogenarian to count a bucket of money”