Season 2001-02

The 2001-02 season was the club’s historic first campaign in the Football League. The club started the season in fine style, recording their first win in the Football League with a 1-0 victory over York City. Warren Patmore, signed from Yeovil and scored the club’s first ever Football League goal but lasted only four games before transferring to Woking. The first game at Nene Park was against Lincoln City, with the game ending 0-0 in front of the ITV Digital cameras.

Despite a Worthington Cup win over Burnley, the club went seven league matches without a win and the hard-earned league status looked under threat as Barry Hunter was signed along with Scott Partridge and the returning Ritchie Hanlon to try to reverse the trend. The record books were rewritten for Diamonds on October 2001 but unfortunately it was for the wrong reasons. A 7-1 hammering at Cardiff in the LDV Vans Trophy game was a club record heaviest defeat at the time.

However, the season was about to change in December following the signing of Onandi Lowe, a Jamaican international who had an excellent scoring record for his country. This signing was reinforced with the arrival of Stuart Wardley and Paul Hall. The club lost only eight games in 26 matches from December. Lowe went on a scoring spree for Diamonds – hitting nine in the final five games of the season to shoot Diamonds up the table and secure a play-off spot. Diamonds faced Rochdale in the semi-final and after a hard-fought 2-2 draw at Nene Park it was all down to one match at Spotland on a cold Tuesday night for a place in the final at the Millennium Stadium. It looked as though Diamonds would not get their day at Cardiff after a mistake from Billy Turley, miskicking a rolling ball from Mark Peters, saw the club go one goal down. However, their day in the Welsh capital was secured when Onandi Lowe and Paul Hall grabbed a goal apiece. The final, however, was not to be Diamonds day and Cheltenham ran out deserved 3-1 winners, with Hall grabbing the club’s goal at the famous stadium.

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 11/08/01	A	D3	York City	Won 1-0	Patmore	4307
Thu 16/08/01	H	D3	Lincoln City	Drew 0-0	–	5018
Tue 21/08/01	A	WC1	Burnley	Won 3-2	Peters, Mustafa, Darby	4398
Sat 25/08/01	A	D3	Macclesfield	Drew 0-0	–	1950
Mon 27/08/01	H	D3	Plymouth Argyle	Lost 2-3	Darby/2	4414
Sat 01/09/01	A	D3	Oxford United	Lost 2-3	Darby/2	6289
Sat 08/09/01	H	D3	Southend United	Lost 0-1	–	4583
Tue 11/09/01	A	WC2	Crewe Alexandra	Lost 0-2AET	–	4807
Sat 15/09/01	A	D3	Leyton Orient	Lost 1-2	Hanlon	5287
Tue 18/09/01	H	D3	Torquay United	Drew 0-0	–	3258
Sat 22/09/01	H	D3	Cheltenham Town	Won 1-0	Sigere	4116
Tue 25/09/01	A	D3	Exeter City	Drew 1-1	Hanlon	2622
Sat 29/09/01	A	D3	Darlington	Drew 0-0	–	4365
Fri 05/10/01	H	D3	Hartlepool Utd	Won 2-1	og, Hunter	3929
Sat 13/10/01	A	D3	Rochdale	Drew 0-0	–	4345
Tue 16/10/01	A	LDV1	Cardiff City	Lost 1-7	Hall	2052
Sat 20/10/01	H	D3	Hull City	Drew 3-3	Hanlon, Burgess/2	4676
Tue 23/10/01	A	D3	Shrewsbury Town	Won 2-0	Setchell, Darby	4016
Sat 27/10/01	H	D3	Mansfield Town	Won 3-1	og, Burgess, Partridge	4937
Sat 03/11/01	A	D3	Swansea City	Drew 0-0	–	3970
Tue 06/11/01	H	MCSF	Northampton Town	Won 2-1	Brady/2	1867
Sat 10/11/01	H	D3	Halifax Town	Won 2-1	Partridge, Thomson	3883
Tue 13/11/01	H	CS	Chester City (12)	Drew 2-2AET	Talbot, Rodwell	937
Sat 17/11/01	A	FAC1	Worcester City	Won 1-0	Hanlon	3313
Tue 20/11/01	H	D3	Scunthorpe Utd	Drew 0-0	–	3533
Sat 24/11/01	A	D3	Kidderminster H	Lost 0-3	–	3014
Sat 01/12/01	H	D3	Bristol Rovers	Won 3-1	Partridge/2, Lowe (V)	4570
Sat 08/12/01	A	FAC2	Brighton & HA	Lost 1-2	Hanlon	5647
Wed 12/12/01	H	MCF	Peterborough Utd	Lost 1-4	McElhatton	696
Sat 15/12/01	A	D3	Luton Town	Lost 0-1	–	7495
Sat 22/12/01	H	D3	Carlisle Utd	Won 3-1	Lowe, Hall, og (V)	4142
Wed 26/12/01	A	D3	Southend Utd	Lost 2-4	Butterworth, Partridge	5878
Sat 29/12/01	A	D3	Plymouth Argyle	Lost 0-1	–	9503
Sat 12/01/02	A	D3	Lincoln City	Won 4-2	Lowe, Hall/2, Darby	3170
Sat 19/01/02	H	D3	York City	Won 3-0	Darby, McElhatton, Lowe (V)	4605
Tue 22/01/02	A	D3	Carlisle	Lost 0-3	–	2864
Sat 26/01/02	A	D3	Hartlepool Utd	Lost 1-5	Duffy	3513
Tue 29/01/02	H	D3	Macclesfield Town	Won 2-0	Lowe, Wardley (V)	2771
Sat 02/02/02	H	D3	Darlington	Won 2-1	Hall, Lowe (V)	4383
Tue 05/02/02	H	D3	Oxford Utd	Won 2-1	Lowe, Brady	4484
Sat 09/02/02	A	D3	Hull City	Lost 1-2	Hanlon	8825
Sat 16/02/02	H	D3	Rochdale	Drew 1-1	Hall	4672
Sat 23/02/02	H	D3	Leyton Orient	Won 1-0	Wardley	4507
Tue 26/02/02	A	D3	Torquay Utd	Drew 1-1	Wardley	1709
Sat 02/03/02	A	D3	Cheltenham Town	Drew 1-1	Lowe	4584
Tue 05/03/02	H	D3	Exeter City	Won 2-1	Burgess, Hanlon	3343
Sat 09/03/02	H	D3	Luton Town	Lost 1-2	Hall	5876
Sat 16/03/02	A	D3	Bristol Rovers	Won 3-0	Lowe/2, Hanlon	5240
Sat 23/03/02	H	D3	Shrewsbury Town	Won 3-0	Lowe, Hanlon, Mustafa	5432
Sat 30/03/02	A	D3	Mansfield Town	Won 4-1	Lowe/3, Angell (V)	5807
Mon 01/04/02	H	D3	Swansea City	Won 4-0	Hall, Lowe/2, Angell	4671
Sat 06/04/02	A	D3	Scunthorpe Utd	Drew 1-1	Lowe	4794
Sat 13/04/02	H	D3	Kidderminster H	Lost 0-2	–	5478
Sat 20/04/02	A	D3	Halifax Town	Won 4-2	Lowe/2, Wardley, Hall	2699
Sat 27/04/02	H	POSF/1	Rochdale	Drew 2-2	Wardley, Butterworth (V)	6015
Tue 30/04/02	A	POSF/2	Rochdale	Won 2-1	Lowe, Hall (V)	8547
Mon 06/05/02	N	PO	Cheltenham Town	Lost 1-3	Hall (V)	24368

.
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 12: Won 4-3 pens – McElhatton / Rodwell / Grant / Thomson