[ Tue 13th Oct ] v Histon, KO 7:45pm RIC1R HOME

[Dazzler]

Preview to follow - Red Insure Cup Match 1st Round.

http://www.afcdiamonds.com/afc-rushden- ... th-october

Southern League Page

https://www.southern-football-league.co ... friendlies

[sussexdiamond]

Be interesting to see team selection. Last season we expected a "weakened" team, but usually fielded quite a strong line up and eventually won the UCL League cup.

I expect Ashton to play, but any others is anybodies guess.

[Sid]

I was very much in favour of playing a strong line up in the UCL Cup last season. It is fairly well regarded at the level and I thought we could win it with little or no chance of any disruption to our league challenge. The SL Cup is different, no one cares, some even pay a fine to be excused from competing and there is the potential later in the competition for long midweek journeys to play in front of 40 or 50 fans.
It is however useful to give those who have had little time on the pitch a game, so hopefully 90 minutes for Ashton, Spriggs, Lawless, Butt and anyone else not starting regularly. Be good to give Alex Vitue a game in goal as well, as he may need to replace Matt at any time during a match.

[Dazzler]

<BUMP> Preview updated a little earlier yesterday.

http://www.afcdiamonds.com/afc-rushden- ... th-october

[Formic]

Be interesting to see team selection. Last season we expected a "weakened" team, but usually fielded quite a strong line up and eventually won the UCL League cup.

I expect Ashton to play, but any others is anybodies guess.

It will be interesting to see who plays, but Andy Peaks interview on the recent highlights makes it clear Jack Ashton will be out for a while. I don't know if any of the new U21s are seen as candidates for a step up, but some of last season's U18's seem to continue to impress in that team - they had a good victory over Histon U21s at the weekend> A few of those Histon U21s may also be on show, as they have had to release players recently for various reasons including budgetary ones.

[Dazzler]

See Andy's comments on the ET website [talks about Barwell and tonight's game.]

http://www.northantstelegraph.co.uk/spo ... -1-7006648

[Olly]

I was very much in favour of playing a strong line up in the UCL Cup last season. It is fairly well regarded at the level and I thought we could win it with little or no chance of any disruption to our league challenge. The SL Cup is different, no one cares, some even pay a fine to be excused from competing and there is the potential later in the competition for long midweek journeys to play in front of 40 or 50 fans.
It is however useful to give those who have had little time on the pitch a game, so hopefully 90 minutes for Ashton, Spriggs, Lawless, Butt and anyone else not starting regularly. Be good to give Alex Vitue a game in goal as well, as he may need to replace Matt at any time during a match.

Yeah, I find it hard to disagree with this, doing well in a league cup is nice, but there isn't much for the club to gain from it and midweek trips to Weymouth or Bideford in a competition like this would be far from ideal. At least Truro aren't in the SL anymore though :lol:

[Trek]

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Histon- ... story.html

[Bob's Bitch]

Is there even any prize money for this competition? It's a shame because I don't like to lose any fixture but really this competition is a bit pointless, if all there is to look forward to is costly midweek trips to the southern and south-westerly teams. IIRC it's about £500 to not enter the competition, I wonder if any clubs have just done that?

[Olly]

See Andy's comments on the ET website [talks about Barwell and tonight's game.]

http://www.northantstelegraph.co.uk/spo ... -1-7006648

I do like his honesty in saying he initially thought he would have preferred a more lucrative draw and that the league cup isn't the priority, it does annoy me when managers pretend they care about pointless competitions they'd rather not be in, cause he's right, the players gave everything they've got on Saturday, so no-one wants a competition like the SL Cup a few days after that and with the league game on Saturday in mind.