Season 2005-06

The club had been handed over to the Supporters Trust prior to the start of the 2005/06 season, with Rushden & Diamonds becoming the first Football Club owned solely by a Supporters Trust. The Griggs family also provided a cash injection of £500,000 for the 2005/06 season, and £250,000 for the 2006/07 season.

On the playing side, Barry Hunter remained as Manager after avoiding relegation the previous season. Young players Greg Pearson, Daniel Chillingworth and Neil McCafferty were signed from West Ham, Cambridge United and Charlton respectively. Hunter also recruited experienced midfielder Dave Savage from Bristol Rovers as well as securing the loan signings of young goalkeeper Jamie Young from Reading, Ashley Nicholls joined on loan from Cambridge and striker Chris O’Grady from Leicester. During the January transfer window many additional signings were made including Wayne Hatswell, Darren Caskey, Tyrone Berry, Scott Tynan and Ronnie Bull. Also in January youth team products David Bell and Andy Burgess both left the club with Bell joining former Diamonds defender Paul Underwood at Luton Town.

The 2005/06 season would ultimately be a season of struggle culminating in relegation to the Football Conference. However, highlights included the 3-0 home victory over fellow strugglers and near neighbours Oxford United at the end of January and a decent spell of form in February and March. Relegation was confirmed at Boston United on April 29th with Diamonds losing 2-0 after they had numerous chances to win the game. After the game most of the players joined the fans to commiserate, and the club’s 5-year stay in the Football League had ended.

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 06/08/05	H	CCL2	Darlington	Drew 1-1	Bell	2832
Tue 09/08/05	A	CCL2	Mansfield Town	Won 1-0	Allen	3402
Sat 20/08/05	H	CCL2	Chester City	Drew 1-1	O’Grady	2682
Wed 24/08/05	H	CC1	Coventry City	Lost 0-3	–	3240
Sat 27/08/05	H	CCL2	Lincoln City	Drew 1-1	Pearson	2860
Mon 29/08/05	A	CCL2	Grimsby Town	Lost 0-2	–	3774
Fri 02/09/05	H	CCL2	Peterborough Utd	Lost 0-2	–	4403
Sat 10/09/05	A	CCL2	Oxford Utd	Drew 2-2	Taylor, Grainger	4189
Tue 13/09/05	A	CCL2	Macclesfield Town	Lost 1-3	Broughton	2874
Sat 17/09/05	H	CCL2	Stockport County	Won 3-2	Gulliver, O/Grady, Dempster	2710
Sat 24/09/05	A	CCL2	Notts County	Drew 0-0	–	5145
Tue 27/09/05	H	CCL2	Northampton Town	Lost 1-3	Savage	5211
Sat 01/10/05	A	CCL2	Rochdale	Lost 1-2	Okuonghae	2606
Fri 07/10/05	H	CCL2	Bury	Lost 0-2	–	2639
Sat 15/10/05	A	CCL2	Wycombe Wdrs	Drew 0-0	–	5231
Tue 18/10/05	H	LDV1	Southend Utd	Won 1-0	Pearson	1300
Sat 22/10/05	H	CCL2	Shrewsbury Town	Won 3-0	Savage, Bell, O’Grady	2954
Sat 29/10/05	A	CCL2	Barnet	Lost 1-2	Dempster	2564
Sun 06/11/05	A	FAC1	Halifax Town	Drew 1-1	Armstrong	2303
Tue 08/11/05	A	MCSF	Rothwell Town	Won 2-1	Taylor, Nicholls	269
Fri 11/11/05	H	CCL2	Boston Utd	Won 1-0	Gulliver	3205
Tue 15/11/05	H	FAC1r	Halifax Town (4)	Drew 0-0 AET	–	2133
Tue 22/11/05	A	LDV2	Swansea   City	Lost 0-4	–	5321
Sat 26/11/05	A	CCL2	Darlington	Drew 1-1	Bell	3209
Sat 03/12/05	H	FAC2	Leyton Orient	Lost 0-1	–	3245
Tue 06/12/05	H	CCL2	Carlisle Utd	Lost 0-4	–	2216
Sat 10/12/05	H	CCL2	Mansfield Town	Lost 1-2	Dempster	2477
Sat 17/12/05	A	CCL2	Chester City	Won 2-1	Broughton, og	2265
Mon 26/12/05	A	CCL2	Leyton Orient	Lost 1-5	Broughton	4558
Wed 28/12/05	H	CCL2	Cheltenham Town	Lost 0-1	–	2244
Sat 31/12/05	A	CCL2	Torquay Utd	Lost 1-2	O’Grady	2668
Mon 02/01/06	H	CCL2	Bristol Rovers	Lost 2-3	Broughton/2	2720
Sat 07/01/06	A	CCL2	Peterborough Utd	Lost 0-2	–	4613
Sat 14/01/06	H	CCL2	Wrexham	Lost 0-2	–	2617
Sat 21/01/06	A	CCL2	Stockport County	Drew 2-2	Gulliver, Jackson	4574
Tue 24/01/06	H	MCF	Peterborough Utd (5)	Drew 2-2	Caskey, Hunter	271
Sat 28/01/06	H	CCL2	Oxford Utd	Won 3-0	Kelly/2, Gulliver	3283
Sat 04/02/06	A	CCL2	Northampton Town	Lost 0-2	–	7036
Tue 07/02/06	A	CCL2	Bury	Drew 1-1	Hatswell	1777
Sat 11/02/06	H	CCL2	Notts County	Won 1-0	Mikolanda	3113
Tue 14/02/06	A	CCL2	Wrexham	Lost 0-2	–	3195
Sat 18/02/06	A	CCL2	Carlisle Utd	Lost 0-5	–	6922
Sat 25/02/06	H	CCL2	Macclesfield Town	Won 1-0	Broughton	2479
Sat 04/03/06	H	CCL2	Grimsby Town	Drew 1-1	Jackson	3366
Sat 11/03/06	A	CCL2	Lincoln City	Drew 2-2	Turner, Jacskson	4383
Sat 18/03/06	H	CCL2	Leyton Orient	Won 1-0	Broughton	3679
Sat 25/03/06	A	CCL2	Cheltenham Town	Lost 1-3	Jackson	3447
Sat 01/04/06	H	CCL2	Torquay Utd	Won 1-0	Broughton	3795
Sat 08/04/06	A	CCL2	Bristol Rovers	Won 1-0	Broughton	6432
Sat 15/04/06	H	CCL2	Rochdale	Drew 1-1	Broughton	3135
Tue 18/04/06	A	CCL2	Shrewsbury Town	Lost 1-4	Caskey	4239
Sat 22/04/06	H	CCL2	Wycombe Wdrs	Lost 1-3	Kelly	3396
Sat 29/04/06	A	CCL2	Boston Utd	Lost 0-2	–	2489
Sat 06/05/06	H	CCL2	Barnet	Lost 1-2	Jackson	4174

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.

Note 4: Won 5-4 pens – Burgess / Savage / Gier / Armstrong / Gulliver

Note 5: Won 3-2 pens – Caskey / Grainger / Jackson