Season 2002-03

The 2002-2003 season brought much optimism for the club following their impressive first year in the Football League. Marcus Bignot, a former Crewe player was brought in to strengthen the squad and the club made an impressive start, losing only one game from their opening eight encounters. Despite an 8-0 loss to Coventry in the Worthington Cup (breaking the record for the heaviest club defeat) Diamonds were never out of the top six throughout 2002.

A 5-1 home win over Shrewsbury kicked off 2003 and important victories over Kidderminster, Cambridge and Bournemouth kept the momentum going. On March 1st 2003, Diamonds were in second place in the table, a massive 12 points behind leaders Hartlepool, and at that stage there was no talk of the title. However, an incredible turn of fortunes for both sides resulted in one of the most amazing finishes to the season. With Hartlepool struggling to find any form, Diamonds took full advantage and in March the club racked up wins over York, Hull, Bury and Exeter, with Brian being named Manager of the Month (his second award of this type for the season).

Diamonds won four important games on the trot in April, including a 2-1 victory over Carlisle, which secured promotion and could have secured the championship in the penultimate match of the season, but a 0-0 draw against Leyton Orient combined with a Hartlepool win set up a mouth-watering end of season game. The computer fixture could not have written the script any sweeter – Hartlepool were the last day opponents for Diamonds at Nene Park. The home side knew a draw would be good enough to secure the title and Paul Hall settled nerves with a first-half opener. It looked as though there would be no response from Hartlepool but with minutes remaining Diamonds fans were to endure nail-biting moments when Hartlepool grabbed an equaliser. However, this was to be Diamonds day as they held on for a famous draw to secure the championship in only the club’s second season in the Football League.

This meant the Diamonds had secured their second national league title in their short existence, something other clubs may struggle to ever achieve, and certainly not in the current millennium.

The game at home to Oxford United on 28th December 2002 was the 600th in the Diamonds History – see here for a reflection on that milestone.

See below for a match summary as well as links to match reports. The final league table for the season can be seen here.

See here for a detailed summary of all the games during the season, including team-line up for each game and match timings.

Date	V	Lge	Opponent	Result	Scorers	Att
Sat 10/08/02	A	D3	Swansea City	Drew 2-2	Lowe, Underwood	6327
Tue 13/08/02	H	D3	Torquay United	Won 3-0	Darby, Wardley, Hall	3602
Sat 17/08/02	H	D3	Kidderminster H	Won 3-1	og, Gray, Darby (V)	3329
Sat 24/08/02	A	D3	Shrewsbury Town	Drew 1-1	Darby	3548
Mon 26/08/02	H	D3	Scunthorpe Utd	Won 2-0	Lowe, Burgess	3849
Sat 31/08/02	A	D3	Cambridge Utd	Lost 1-4	Wardley	4598
Sat 07/09/02	H	D3	Southend Utd	Won 3-0	Gray/2, Hall	4176
Tue 10/09/02	H	WC1	Millwall (3)	Drew 0-0 AET	(won 5-3 pens) (V)	2731
Sat 14/09/02	A	D3	York City	Drew 0-0	–	4102
Tue 17/09/02	A	D3	AFC Bournemouth	Lost 1-3	Dempster	4527
Sat 21/09/02	H	D3	Wrexham	Drew 2-2	Hall/2	4090
Sat 28/09/02	A	D3	Hartlepool Utd	Won 2-1	Peters, Hall	5502
Wed 02/10/02	A	WC2	Coventry City	Lost 0-8	–	8750
Sat 05/10/02	H	D3	Leyton Orient	Won 2-0	Darby/2	4381
Sat 12/10/02	A	D3	Exeter City	Drew 1-1	Darby	2884
Sat 19/10/02	H	D3	Bury	Lost 0-1	–	3925
Tue 22/10/02	A	LDV1	Cambridge Utd	Lost 0-4	–	2116
Sat 26/10/02	A	D3	Hull City	Drew 1-1	Gray	10659
Tue 29/10/02	H	D3	Boston Utd	Won 1-0	Lowe	4079
Sat 02/11/02	A	D3	Rochdale	Won 1-0	Darby	2628
Sat 09/11/02	H	D3	Darlington	Won 2-0	Lowe, og	3911
Sat 16/11/02	A	FAC1	Kidderminster H	Drew 2-2	Duffy/2	3079
Sat 23/11/02	A	D3	Lincoln City	Won 2-1	Bell, Wardley	3198
Tue 26/11/02	H	FAC1r	Kidderminster H	Won 2-1	Duffy, Wardley	3391
Sat 30/11/02	H	D3	Bristol Rovers	Won 2-1	Lowe, Hall	3960
Sat 07/12/02	A	FAC2	Exeter City	Lost 1-3	Lowe	2277
Sat 14/12/02	A	D3	Macclesfield Tn	Won 1-0	Lowe	1839
Sat 21/12/02	H	D3	Carlisle Utd	Drew 1-1	Lowe	4355
Thu 26/12/02	A	D3	Scunthorpe Utd	Drew 0-0	–	4096
Sat 28/12/02	H	D3	Oxford Utd	Lost 0-2	–	4891
Wed 01/01/03	H	D3	Shrewsbury Town	Won 5-1	Darby/2, Gray, Lowe, Hall	4144
Sat 04/01/03	A	D3	Torquay Utd	Drew 1-1	Darby	2651
Sat 11/01/03	A	D3	Kidderminster H	Won 2-0	Hall/2 (V)	3417
Sat 18/01/03	H	D3	Cambridge Utd	Won 4-1	Gray, Bell, Hall/2 (V)	5206
Sat 25/01/03	A	D3	Oxford Utd	Lost 0-3	–	6508
Sat 01/02/03	H	D3	Swansea City	Drew 1-1	Hall	4046
Sat 08/02/03	A	D3	Darlington	Drew 2-2	Gray, Hall	2742
Sat 22/02/03	A	D3	Southend Utd	Lost 1-2	Hunter	6453
Sat 01/03/03	H	D3	York City	Won 2-1	Wardley, og	4463
Tue 04/03/03	H	D3	AFC Bournemouth	Won 2-1	Darby, Lowe	4353
Sat 08/03/03	A	D3	Wrexham	Lost 0-3	–	3441
Sat 15/03/03	H	D3	Hull City	Won 4-2	og, Hall, Lowe, Wardley	4713
Tue 18/03/03	A	D3	Bury	Won 1-0	Darby	2291
Sat 22/03/03	A	D3	Boston Utd	Drew 1-1	Darby	3504
Mon 24/03/03	H	D3	Rochdale	Drew 3-3	Hall, Lowe/2	3444
Sat 29/03/03	H	D3	Exeter City	Won 1-0	Darby	4921
Sat 05/04/03	A	D3	Bristol Rovers	Won 2-1	Lowe/2	6736
Sat 12/04/03	H	D3	Lincoln City	Won 1-0	Lowe	4962
Sat 19/04/03	A	D3	Carlisle Utd	Won 2-1	Wardley, Edwards	5468
Mon 21/04/03	H	D3	Macclesfield Tn	Won 3-0	Holdsworth/2, Bell	4494
Sat 26/04/03	A	D3	Leyton Orient	Drew 0-0	–	5180
Sat 03/05/03	H	D3	Hartlepool Utd	Drew 1-1	Hall	6291

Note – those games with a (P) in the scorers column will have match photos in the report, and those with a (V) will have a link to video highlights of the game.

Match Note 3: After Extra Time. Diamonds won 5-3 on penalties (Gray / Hall / Wardley / Turley / Underwood)