Rushden & Diamonds 1 Farnborough Town 0

Match Report courtesy of Unofficial Rushden & Diamonds Website (1997-2001)

19th December 1998 – Nene Park (Attendance: 2400)

Rushden Team: Gayle, Wooding, Bradshaw, Hamsher, Warburton, Heggs, Butterworth, Brady, De Sousa, West, Underwood.
Subs: McElhatton, Foster, Rodwell .

Diamonds Scorers: West 28 mins

Webmasters MoM: Gary Butterworth

Match Report:

This was surely a case of “The day after the night before”. A lack lustre performance from Diamonds that at the end of the day saw them very close to throwing away two points. The first half was really dominated by Diamonds, but only because Farnborough seemed so poor, not really wanting to play and putting all men behind the ball. Heggs tormented them down the left, and De Sousa looked quick and strong upfront, feeding from West. Butts worked tirelessly in midfield and the back four looked solid. It was no surprise when on 28 minutes Colin West headed Diamonds in front, a well taken goal but slack marking from Farnborough. One could then be forgiven for thinking that Diamonds may want to push forward and try and get a performance going. But despite the goal, Diamonds huffed and puffed there way to half time.

The second half must be one of the poorest seen by Diamonds fans this season. Not helped by Razor being carried off early into the second half, the Diamonds performance never materialized. It was Farnborough then who sensed that Diamonds had not really got the gumption to press forward, and they may snatch a point with a bit of pressure. Diamonds passing was poor, the effort going in to tackle was half-hearted (Heggs the exception), and the midfield became non-existent other than a tireless Gary Butterworth. The front men got little or no service, there was no creativity in midfield, and surely BT would not have been happy with this performance. But it must be said we collected all three points having played poorly, and we are still up with the leaders.

Diamonds are desperate for the return of Carel Vandervalden to add some spice into the middle of the park, to create something, to inspire. We can only hope that BT shakes them out of this “Leeds Dream” that they appeared to be in today. Two important games are on the horizon, against Managerless “Boro” and the ever improving “Spiffs” on Bank Holiday Monday. With the Poppies getting a great result at Hereford and the Robins giving Boro an early Xmas Stuffing, six points from these games are crucial. We can then get the Leeds game out of the way and concentrate on improving our League position.