Dog and Duck Stadium, London Road, Wellingborough NN8 2DP
Kick-Off 3pm
FA Cup with Budweiser
Second Qualifying Round
Saturday 28th September 2013
AFC Rushden & Diamonds v Cambridge City FC
AFC Rushden & Diamonds face their toughest footballing test in their short history when they host Cambridge City in the FA Cup at the Dog & Duck on Saturday afternoon.
Cambridge City are a Step 3 club, two levels above the Diamonds, playing in the Southern League Premier Division, so this will be the first time the Diamonds have faced a team at that level.
This will be the first Saturday FA Cup game the Diamonds will have played at the Dog & Duck, with only midweek replays in this competition previously at their home ground.
The Diamonds reached this stage after wins in the Extra-Preliminary Round against London Colney, the Preliminary Round against Northwood, and the First Qualifying Round against Cockfosters. With Joe Merrill serving the second game of a three match ban, the Diamonds will be forced into at least one change from the side that has featured in the past few FA Cup and FA Vase games.
This is an all-pay game. Entrances prices for this game are the normal cup tie £6 Adults, £3 Concessions (Over 60s, students, U16s) and £1 U8s.
Should scores be level after 90 minutes there will be a replay at Bridge Road, Histon on Wednesday 2nd October, Kick Off 7:45pm.
The winners of the tie will play in the third qualifying round on the weekend of 12th October. You can see more information on this season’s FA Cup on the FA Website here.
N.B. As this is a game in an FA competition, the FA rules regarding alcohol must be observed, meaning that no alcohol can be consumed outside of the clubhouse, and to ensure this there will be no alcohol sales from 2:45pm until the game is finished – please help us by observing this rule.
Match Status information is here.
Our Opponents
Cambridge City FC is the oldest club in Cambridge, being formed in 1908 as Cambridge Town (as Cambridge was still to be awarded city status). They became Cambridge City in the early 1950’s, and shortly afterwards they joined the Southern League, becoming the best-known and best-supported team in that league by the 1960’s. In 2004-05 they were awarded a place in the newly formed Conference South, but were demoted from that league in the summer of 2008 due to ground grading issues. After a number of legal battles they were forced to leave their ground in Milton Road, Cambridge earlier this year, and for this season they are ground-sharing at Histon FC’s Bridge Road ground.
You can read more about their history on their website here.
Their club colours are white and black, with a light blue away strip, and their club website is here and their twitter feed here. They are managed by Gary Roberts and they are known as “The Lilywhites”.
City are in a rich vein of form, having won all five of the games they have played in September, including a 5-1 victory away at Step 3 Kings Lynn Town in the previous round of the FA Cup (report here). Amongst their players are strikers Nick Beasant, son of former Wimbledon goalkeeper Dave Beasant, and Neil Midgley who played for Kettering Town and Barnet in the Football Conference after short spells in the Football League with Ipswich, Luton and Barnet.
Some Diamonds fans will remember games between RDFC and CCFC in the Southern League Premier Division in 1994-95 and 1995-96 seasons – or even earlier in the Dr. Martens Cup. The two teams also faced each other in a pre-season game in August 2000.
The Dog and Duck
For directions to the Dog and Duck see here, where you will also find details of car parking options. You will find a range of bars and catering facilities, as well as a Club Shop. There is covered seating available, as well as a covered standing area.
There is always a need for additional volunteers to help with ongoing maintenance and matchday work, as detailed here.
Other Info
A summary set of profiles for the Diamonds Players and Management is here. The fixture list for this season is here, with fixture news and a downloadable fixture list here. Individual player profiles are here, with player and match stats available here.
Player and Match Sponsorship options are detailed in the Commercial Brochure as referenced here.
Latest fixture news is here, and specific match status information here along with the next planned fixture for the various AFC Rushden & Diamonds teams. Don’t forget you can get a regular Diamonds news bulletin delivered to your inbox, including details of all the forthcoming fixtures by signing up to the Club Newsletter – you will see a sign-up box on the right-hand side of the site homepage – just under the EA Sports Logo.
For details of the history of AFC Rushden & Diamonds see here.
There are details on how to become a member of AFC R&D here, as well as news on Season Tickets, Multiple Game Tickets and related prices here.
The club depends upon volunteer support from its fanbase. If you would like to join the group who help either on matchdays or behind the scenes see here.
A full directory of UCL clubs, including links to websites, ground details (with a map pinpointing all the UCL grounds), along with club links including Twitter details plus some general UCL links is here.
The UCL Handbook, along with links to competition rules for the current season are here.
