The unofficial AFC Rushden & Diamonds messageboard

Official Match Preview

http://www.afcdiamonds.com/afc-rushden- ... h-november



As always the Crosskeys Bar will be open and the Burger Monster cooking.

Quite a bit of Live Football on TV as well - showing in the bar during the match.

Likely to be - Man Utd v Young Boys UEFA Champions League Group Stage20:00BT Sport 2 / BT Sport 4K UHD

Other ties -

CSKA Moscow v Viktoria Plzen UEFA Champions League Group Stage17:55BT Sport ESPN
AEK Athens v Ajax UEFA Champions League Group Stage17:55BT Sport 1
Roma v Real Madrid UEFA Champions League Group Stage20:00BT Sport ESPN
Lyon v Man City UEFA Champions League Group Stage20:00BT Sport 3
Juventus v Valencia UEFA Champions League Group Stage20:00BT Sport Extra 2
Bayern Munich v Benfica UEFA Champions League Group Stage20:00BT Sport Extra 3
Hoffenheim v Shakhtar Donetsk UEFA Champions League Group Stage20:00BT Sport Extra 4

( Per https://www.live-footballontv.com/live- ... sport.html )

<BUMP> Tonight!

Jon Dunham's Preview, via his Twitter - https://twitter.com/JonDunhamNT/status/ ... 4339458048

Both Alvechurch and Leiston games postponed. Can we jump up to third place?

Another decent win against a halesowen side that offered virtually nothing in attack. Bit of a frustrating first half, but we took control in the second with two timely finishes. Brilliant left footed finish from Tom Lorraine to seal it. Two down points of the night were ben diamond's red card and Jack Ashton pulling up injured, which looked to be his knee. Surely a defender has to be brought in now before Saturday.

I would have been more than happy before the season started to be 3rd! Obviously we have played more games than the others.

Still lots of work to do and the squad seems very light but great start. Punter dropped straight back in and even though they lacked in attack I think he's a capable back up.

I thought we deserved the win, it was more like the team of last season in the 2nd half, two good finishes.
I couldn't work out why Diamond got sent off, l didn't see what happened. And although we're 3rd but, have played more games than those around us, l'd rather have the points than games in hand.
It was bloody freezing as well. Good performance, good win, good night.

It's good to see one of our Academy players appearing in a League game at Step 3. I think that means Patrick Casey is our first player in a league game that was born this millennium. (There have been a couple of others in Cup games). It's especially notable with him being a central defender, with most of the others that have made the step-up from the youth system being midfielders or forwards.

See Jon Dunham's review of the match via his twitter at https://twitter.com/JonDunhamNT/status/ ... 6966052864

Didn't have to do a great deal to beat a woeful Halesowen side, but you can only beat what's put in front of you and that was something we didn't do on Saturday against similarly weak opposition. As I've said before, any win is a good win in this league.

The undoubted highlight yesterday was a return to form for Ben Farrell. I was beginning to wonder if we'd seen the last of those kind of performances from him but yesterday was more like what we'd come to expect after last season. Albie Hopkins had another good game, the third in a row where he's been one of / the standout performer. A great strike from Tom Lorraine too for his goal and whilst i'm wheeling out the positives Blaize Punter slotted in to the backline like he hadn't been away which I wasn't expecting, and the added bonus of a clean sheet.

The one big fat negative was the attendance. Foul weather all day, the floodlights going off when KO was approaching and Champions League football on the TV won't have helped, but I think i'm right in saying that was our worst home league attendance since reforming by some distance. I'm sure someone can confirm? That's not going to help cashflow with no more home league games for a month.