The unofficial AFC Rushden & Diamonds messageboard

I have a good habit of picking bad games to go to. I've managed to pick our three worst performances this season.

Today was a write off from start to finish, but everyone has their off days. A 4-0 loss is the same as a scrappy 2-1 loss on the points board.

Now we've finally got some quality up front, this squad is good enough to go up, especially if we bolster our final problem area (central midfield). Hopefully we will be quick to bounce back on Tuesday.

Being top of the league is a great place to be.

Sometimes a defeat like today is a blessing in disguise. It forces the management to re-evaluate and teaches players not to be complacent. Certainly losses of this nature have spurred the team on in past seasons. An ideal opportunity in the next two home league matches to get maximum points.

It's extremely disappointing to hear of how poor we were today, but in the grand scheme of things we're still in a very good position, we've shown ourselves to be very strong promotion candidates so far no doubt about that, and we're fortunate enough to be in a league where no single team is consistent enough to walk away with it like Spalding a few seasons back. Off days happen and we've shown in past seasons (i.e. Oadby in 2013 and 2015) that a kick up the backside like this can have positive effects in the long run, if we go and play like this and get beaten in the next league game as well then maybe I'd get worried, but I believe in the players and management that that wouldn't happen, I've seen enough in recent games (and with the new signings) to know that we'll almost certainly be still in a title battle come April.

I was expecting a flood of moans on this message board. Usually we get far more moans when we lose than praise when we win games.
So I am pleasantly surprised at the reaction of most fans. For myself I was absolutely stunned by our performance and the result. Where did a performance like that come from after our recent results?.
I did not see the games in our first season at Eynsbury and Oadby nor the more recent defeat to Royston, so this came as real shock to me. If you were listening on Radio Diamonds you will know how devastated and speechless (not good for radio!) I was.
Our hope now is that we can replicate the run of form we showed in both our promotion seasons.

Mal's pics of the horror show are now added to Paul's report - http://www.afcdiamonds.com/beaconsfield ... diamonds-0

At the start of the season, if we had been offered three (unless I've missed some?) losses by february, I think we probably would have taken that fairly happily. We remain at the top of the league and even if the goal difference has taken a bit of a dent, the team now have a big point to prove against Brackley in the Hillier Cup. Hopefully they can step up and prove that it was just a bad day at the office, otherwise the rest of a very strong squad will be pinching their place in the first XI!

I think it's five defeats isn't it, still not too bad. From reports I was getting and I've read on here it was the manner of the defeat that was surprising.

5 defeats James!

But you're right of course, if back in August you told me after 27 games we would be top and 2 points clear I would have been delighted!

But that doesn't excuse Saturday's performance which was one of the poorest I've seen any AFCR&D side deliver.

I think Peaksy might have have rested a few first team regulars tomorrow night and given some fringe players a chance to shine - if I were him now I'd play the starting 11 from Saturday and tell them they owe the fans a performance.

I'm still smarting from how poor we were - that's £8 down the toilet - but full credit to Beaconsfield they can only play what they're up against and they deserved to thump us, but we know we're so much better than that.

I've got every faith in the lads to turn this around and use Saturday's performance as a motivator !! We can't afford too many of those performances !!

I would also of taken this position back at August, top of the table by 2 points, and only 5 defeats.