The unofficial AFC Rushden & Diamonds messageboard

Its looking like Kings Langley, Egham and Royston will be in top three (although I am forever hopeful we can pull back some of our lost ground)

So I have looked at the remaining fixtures for St Ives, CSP, Aylesbury, Northwood and Diamonds. Specifically where the teams clash or have to play the "top three" .

Diamonds 8 to play (5 Home 3 away) have the least such clashes; Northwood (h) and Egham (a)

CSP 8 to play (4 home 4 away) have yet to play Royston and Egham at home and St Ives away.

St Ives 9 to play (5 home 4 away) have yet to play Northwood and CSP at home and Aylesbury away

Northwood 10 to play (3 home 7 away) have yet to play Aylesbury home (last game) and St Ives and Diamonds away.

Aylesbury 11 to play (6 home 5 away) have yet to play Royston and St Ives at home and Northwood away. These 3 games are in fact Aylesbury final 3 fixtures! They do also have to play a local derby v Aylesbury Utd.

With our current form we can take nothing for granted but we do appear to have the best "run in"

For the record I will stick my neck out and say Kings Langley will win the league, all their remaining fixtures are against teams outside the top 8.

Even in current form, 7 of our final 8 games are very winnable. If that happened we'd finish on 85 points, which should be enough for a top 3 finish.

Unless we can improve dramatically on what we have dished up recently then nothing can be taken for granted - Potters Bar should show us that!

I'll keep the faith until the last kick - but the fact is the lack of goals is hurting us! Our midfield is lacking quality I'm sorry to say and the service to our front men is woeful.

Time to see who has the balls for the fight eh? 8 games to go and I think we need to win them all to get a play off spot! We're capable of doing it, I truly believe that, but only if we improve!!

Couldnt agree more Pigman. Having interviewed Andy post game yesterday I was struck by his positivity. Particularly how he turned my question 'so thats 3 consecutive defeats and no goals' into 'but we've only conceded 3 goals in those games and we could have got something from all 3 defeats'

In truth, the title has gone and any more defeats could cost us dear in play off terms but I actually think that if Andy can sort out the midfield (7 & 8 were woeful yesterday) and get a real no 2 then there is every hope that promotion can be achieved. I maybe controversial but a second season in this division is not going to be a calamity is it? But it needs sorting out and quickly! Shame we don't have a 25 goal striker in our midst.

What is of interest to me is what happens if any of the top 5 don't want to go up or are 'inelligible' to do so?

I think this explains the rules for promotion- http://www.ncefl.org.uk/league/rules/appendixa/

The Clubs in the bottom four places in each of the three divisions at Step 3 at the end of the Playing Season will be relegated to a feeder pool and placed in the most geographically appropriate division at Step 4 for the following Playing Season. They will be replaced by the Club finishing in 1st position in each of the divisions at Step 4 together with a further six Clubs to be determined by a series of Play Off Matches. Where a Club finishes in 1st position but does not meet the criteria for participation at the next Step, the Club finishing in 2nd position shall be promoted and the Club finishing in the next eligible position shall take part in the Play Off Matches. Where a Club finishes in a Play Off Position but does not meet the criteria for participation in Play Off Matches the Club finishing in the next eligible position shall take part in the Play Off Matches. The Play Off Matches shall be played so that the highest placed of the eligible Clubs plays against the lowest placed and the other two Clubs play each other. The winners of each match will play each other and the winner of that match will be promoted. If there are only three eligible Clubs then the highest placed shall receive a bye to a second match where it will play the winner of the other Play Off Match and the winner of that match will be promoted. Clubs finishing below position 7 will not be considered for Play Off Matches.
The promoted Clubs will be placed in a feeder pool a.

Is there anything that you don't know about football Formic??? Good to see you and Dave yesterday!

Pressman wrote:..and get a real no 2 ...

We've got one, Connor Kennedy, on loan from Corby Town who was good enough to play in a Southern League Premier winning side last season but, for whatever reason, our manager doesn't select him which amazes me.

Pigman wrote:Unless we can improve dramatically on what we have dished up recently then nothing can be taken for granted - Potters Bar should show us that!

Well I agree there, however it's our away form that's been the problem. 2 of our final 3 away games are Leighton and Arlesey - surely it's not too much to ask to put those two to the sword?!

The home games against Uxbridge, Hanwell, Northwood, Godalming and Barton Rovers - should be looking at 15 points there. Northwood are a decent side and have a good away record, but as I alluded to, our home form has generally been very good.

I personally think that all the clubs above us in the table would struggle financially going into the prem. Travel expenses will be higher , would have to upgrade their grounds too. It's only us which would be financially sound going up and then to go further not just hope to stay in there forever. What's the ambitions on the village team with 20 away fans and 80 home fans compared to Weymouth...

Yes sour grapes before anyone says it