The unofficial AFC Rushden & Diamonds messageboard

bozzer wrote:i think yesterday showed again that this is a much much more competitive league than the southern league.

We'd have taken 7 points from the last 3 games if you had given that to us beforehand.3 very different games, one was a battling performance when down to 10 men, the other was clinical finishing with both teams going at it, and yesterday was probably the first couple of defensive errors in 3 games and they were clinical in punishing us(they weren't sat in the play off positions for no reason!). All of this despite an injury crisis in centre midfield. I would have said we have shown great character recently.

7 points every three games would do us nicely for the rest of the season in my opinion.

And another 7 points from the next three games, all away, would be very welcome. Spalding and Stocksbridge will be a real test of just how good we are.
I do still feel we need two recognized central midfielders playing regularly, preferably any two of Bunting, Curtis and Oulton if we are to achieve any sort of success this season . Hopefully Curtis is on the way back as he was a sub yesterday.

Probably sacrilege to say it, but Dolman has not been so effective this season. He may still be carrying an injury so it is time to bring back Ashton and pair him with Winters.

The problem with not being able to play recognised central midfielders is that we've got four out injured. Although Curtis did make the bench. Tom Lorraine is doing his utmost best in there and we don't want to have to bring in another just to cover. Think the management might have to look at what sort of strikers we're up against each game, as their pacey strikers caused a lot of problems. Certainly for the the second goal, most of the blame has to go to dolman as he allowed the original ball to bounce, wanted too much time and got caught out. Then after Finlay had saved, he was slow to get across to block the second shot and the guy scored. It was certainly his worst game for the club. But then again, he'll probably go and score the winner next Week! Evangelinos has been quiet in recent home games, but he was the star player yesterday getting at ghetto full back and putting in a number of closes. He have to watch him closely to see what he brings to the team. We would have taken the draw at 2-1, but we may well have knicked it. Couple of tough aways after the cup match, against high flying spalding and Stockbridge. Any results against them would be welcomed

Suggesting the idea of dropping Dolman is a joke. That's the first time I've seen him have a below-par game and we still earned a point. By far our best defender if not player and has had 1 not so good game in 100+ games. There's no debate about whether Dolman starts however, his partner is certainly debatable. Hopefully get a win in the trophy and we will see where the team lies after the next 2 league games.

YoungDiamond wrote:Suggesting the idea of dropping Dolman is a joke. That's the first time I've seen him have a below-par game and we still earned a point. By far our best defender if not player and has had 1 not so good game in 100+ games. There's no debate about whether Dolman starts however, his partner is certainly debatable. Hopefully get a win in the trophy and we will see where the team lies after the next 2 league games.

Don't get me wrong I am not suggesting he be dropped but am concerned he is not fully fit and in Ashto0n and Winters we have two very adequate replacements. Dolman may only have played yesterday because Winters was suspended.

There's definitely a selection headache in the centre of defence as winters did well when he came in. Maybe Ashton in for Lee next game, but I think peaksy will keep it the same