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Official Match Preview

http://www.afcdiamonds.com/afc-rushden- ... -september

We are already 12 points behind the leaders, Spalding, and 8 off the 5th placed Basford and with the possibility of just one league match during October (Basford at home ) three points are vital tonight if we are not to be left adrift.

On a positive note ...At least just one game would mean we are possibly still in the FA Cup come the 1st Round Proper on Nov 5th!!

I see Oulton is having an operation today and will be out for at least 3 weeks. The ET is also reporting that Sam Brown will miss the next couple of games and Jack Ashton is struggling too, along with Leslie, Newman and Curtis that we already know about. I did hear that Newman played for the U21's at the weekend though and see on Twitter that he could be involved tonight.

Given those absentees listed above I think we could be in for a long evening against yet another good side.

BartonRaz wrote:I see Oulton is having an operation today and will be out for at least 3 weeks. The ET is also reporting that Sam Brown will miss the next couple of games and Jack Ashton is struggling too, along with Leslie, Newman and Curtis that we already know about. I did hear that Newman played for the U21's at the weekend though and see on Twitter that he could be involved tonight.

Given those absentees listed above I think we could be in for a long evening against yet another good side.

That's very grim news not just for tonight but for Saturday also.
I guess that means Winters and Bradshaw coming in.
Harris partnering Bunts and possibly changes upfront.

Stevenson went off injured on Saturday as well. Not sure if he's OK. Either Brad Harris or Bradshaw to left back if sam brown is out.

A hard-earned 0-0 draw against a team that were very tough to break down. Considering the side we had to field due to all the injuries I think that's a point gained overall.

Really poor game against average opposition, we have zero excitement in the squad and I can see why attendances are falling with the price of admission and standard of football. Personally I think attacking wise we are a shambles, none of the wide players are good enough and it has to be a worry when somebody like hall from last season would now walk into our team. The strikers are probably worse not including Newman because he hasn't been fit but Lorraine will never be good enough wreh looks lazy when he's been on and although I'm not a fan of his we don't play to sharifs strengths by hoofing the ball up to him rather than trying to get it into his feet. Thought defensively with the changes we did ok with Finlay an easy man of the match.

Hard to understand how Romulus are fourth, they were nowhere near as good as Shaw Lane were on Saturday.

I just feel, at the moment that we are missing something, Quigley was a massive loss in my opinion.

I really don't rate Bradshaw, once again he very nearly cost us a goal, and I hate to say it because he's one of my favourite players, but Lorraine is clearly struggling. I don't think he's good enough for this level, unfortunately.

Hard to disagree with what's been posted above, 2 draws against 2 teams in the playoff positions isn't awful by any means, but looking at both games, it is frustrating that we haven't managed to come out of either game with 3 points when we've had some good chances that just haven't been put away. We're really missing some attacking quality at the moment, (can someone give Matt Gearing a call, we desperately could do with his quality now) how Lorraine and Shariff both stayed on the pitch to 70 minutes I do not know, both were ineffective, Newman and Wreh didn't exactly impress either, but surely they deserve more than 17 and 11 minutes respectively to make an impact, I just can't understand why the management team waited so long to make changes when things clearly weren't working going forward.

We're not doing badly by any means, 3 draws in September against teams near the top that may or may not be challenging for playoffs come April shows we're not completely out of our depth and we're still getting used to the new league, but it will be difficult to make the playoffs this season unless we can get everyone fit and players like Newman and Curtis can come into this team and make a real impact.

I've not seen many games over the last couple of seasons but have recently gone to more. I can't understand why especially the last two games we've looked really exciting in the first half then in the second half we've gone really deep and defensive. On Saturday we dominated the first half and due to an absolute world class save by their keeper came in at half time 1-0 up looking as if we would easily walk away with three points. Second half and we spent 50 minutes in our own half defending. Every time we got the ball we launched it forward only for it to come straight back at us. The same happened last night.
We need to start playing football and use the wide players more, try passing the ball through the midfield instead of just launching it forward. It's just coming straight back and giving our defence no reprise.
Finlay an easy man of the match and with no disrespect to him surely outfield players should be in contention for it,