The unofficial AFC Rushden & Diamonds messageboard

Jon Dunham's Five Things We Learned.

https://twitter.com/JonDunhamNT/status/ ... 2128805888



Brackley Town show off the NFA Hillier Senior Cup after their win at Sixfields.
Pictures by Kirsty Edmonds - @brackleyhippy

Jon Dunham speaks with Andy Peaks

https://twitter.com/JonDunhamNT/status/ ... 9811798016



Brackley Town goalkeeper Danny Lewis saves Declan Rogers penalty to secure a 4-2 shoot-out success for his team as AFC Rushden & Diamonds were beaten in the NFA Hillier Senior Cup final.
Pictures by Kirsty Edmonds - @brackleyhippy

Formic wrote: Wed Apr 03, 2019 6:49 am It depends if permission was granted - as per the rules from the NFA Website

Final: No player shall be allowed to play in a final tie unless he has already taken part in a previous round, unless special permission is granted by the County Cup Committee.

The players concerned are Prosser and Jackson, with Hall an unused sub. My understanding is that the clubs were notified beforehand by the NFA of all eligible players.

In the interests of fairness, Brackley only had two previous rounds compared to our three.

Including unused subs we had named 23 players in the previous rounds (five of which are no longer with us) and Brackley 18.

Not really sure what NFA can do as giving us the Cup now is a rather meaningless gesture. Do the opposing players swap medals?. Do we have a replay?
Will we play in the Maunsell Cup instead of Brackley.? Will Brackley be barred from next seasons competition.

In all honesty I don’t think it matters - we lost on the night fair and square - I wouldn’t want the cup handed to me on a technicality to be honest! I’m sure our players feel the same about their medals - one of whom gave his away on the night anyway!

The irony of this is that Brackley had no need to cheat. Had they played Arneson, Byrne and Lowe from the start they would probably have won the match in normal time.

Just seen on Twitter that the NFA have stripped the cup from Brackley and awarded it to us and we will now contest the Maunsell Cup.

Trek wrote: Tue Apr 16, 2019 5:29 pm Just seen on Twitter that the NFA have stripped the cup from Brackley and awarded it to us and we will now contest the Maunsell Cup.

Won it without conceding a goal all competition. Worthy winners

NFA Statement.

Pigman wrote: Fri Apr 05, 2019 3:27 pm In all honesty I don’t think it matters - we lost on the night fair and square - I wouldn’t want the cup handed to me on a technicality to be honest! I’m sure our players feel the same about their medals - one of whom gave his away on the night anyway!

I doubt they do. We were all talking about it on the night and most were aware the Brackley team/squad contained players who shouldn’t have been there, we left players out for that very reason. It’s not like we got battered 4-0 and they stuck an ineligible player on for the last 2 minutes. The team they should have played was probably stronger than the one they did, they cocked up possibly accidentally but probably thinking they would get away with it claiming they needed to rest players for the possible promotion push. We can now look forward to a nice pre season friendly.

They knew all along that they would be thrown out of the Competition for fielding ineligible players. There was no intention of cheating as they informed the NFA well before the day of the game apparently.