Outgang Road, Market Deeping (PE6 8LQ)
Kick-Off 3pm
ChromaSport & Trophies United Counties League Premier Division
Saturday 10th August 2013
Deeping Rangers v AFC Rushden & Diamonds
AFC Rushden & Diamonds will play their first ever game at step 5 of the non-league pyramid when they travel to Market Deeping on Saturday to face Deeping Rangers in the UCL Premier Division.
Rangers play at Outgang Road, Market Deeping, where they share facilities with Market Deeping Cricket Club and the Deeping Tennis Club. The turnstiles at Outgang Road were acquired from the original Wembley Stadium in 2002, and seats in the main stand came from Highfield Road, historic home of Coventry City – see here for details.
Admission prices are to be confirmed. Rangers have advised there is plenty of parking on-site, and they expect their facilities to be open from 12:30pm. In addition to beers etc, their clubhouse serves hot drinks, burgers, sandwiches and bacon rolls.
Nat Liburd has a two game suspension that will mean he is unavailable for this game, and Aaron King will also be unavailable due to holiday commitments. You can read manager Mark Starmer’s view on the new season here. The Diamonds played 11 games during the pre-season period, and you can see summary stats for that period at the bottom of the report on the final friendly here. Match Status information is here.
During the close season the Diamonds Management have been busy strengthening the squad for the season ahead, with six new signings – Russ Dunkley, Fazel Koriya, Nat Liburd, Dan Grainger, Jamal Clarke and Robbie Maddox – joining the club. A review of the entire squad can be found here.
As part of The Football Associations 150th Anniversary celebrations the FA have designated August 10th as “Sir Bobby Robson National Football Day” as a call for people to come together in celebration of the nation’s favourite game, and one of English football’s most iconic figures, as well as to raise awareness of the work of his cancer charity – the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation. Saturday’s game has been selected to help promote this great cause. Rangers have arranged a short sided football game during the half time break featuring some of their younger players to highlight the work they are doing in their youth scheme.
Note that there are certain rule changes for this season which are discussed in the various links here.
Our Opponents
Deeping Rangers FC was founded in 1966, starting in the Peterborough & District Leagues. They joined the UCL in 1999, narrowly missing promotion from division one in their first season, but they then won the league the following season, and have remained in the Premier Division for the past 13 seasons. They won the UCL Premier in 2006-07 – see here for more details of their history. Their manager is Tuncay Korkmaz, and he was able to bring in four players from the title-winning Holbeach United during the summer – Dan Flack, Tommy Treacher, Mitch Griffiths and Craig Parker. Those signings have ensured that Rangers remain as one of the title favourites, so it will be a stiff first test for the Diamonds at this level.
The Rangers club website is here and their twitter feed here. Last season they finished in fifth position in the UCL Premier, winning 22 games and losing only 8, with an average attendance of 99. Alex Beck netted 22 times in that campaign.
They play in Claret and Blue.
Directions / Getting There
Rangers have an excellent custom map on their website here to help locate their ground at Outgang Road, Market Deeping PE6 8LQ. For directions for the trip of around 44-miles from the Dog and Duck see here. Specific directions from the Town Centre are to head north on the B1524 towards Bourne. Turn right onto Towngate East at the Towngate Tavern Pub. Go straight over a mini roundabout onto Outgang Road, where the ground is 1/4 mile on the left.
For distant away games this season the club expects to run a coach, with places available to supporters. For this game bookings were taken at the Club Shop last weekend, but there may still be places available – email welfare@afcdiamonds.com to enquire.
The coach will leave Commercial Way, Wellingborough at 12.00 and Skinners Hill, Rushden at 12.15.
To reach Outgang Road by public transport is rather challenging, the main options being via local transport to Peterborough then service 102 operated by Delaine Buses from Peterborough Bus Station to Market Deeping, followed by a walk to the ground. For door-to-door directions see the Traveline website.
Other Info
A summary set of profiles for the Diamonds Players and Management is here. The fixture list for the forthcoming season is here. Individual player profiles are here, with player and match stats to be available here. (The player and match stats from last season are here.) The league table will be found here once the season begins.
Player and Match Sponsorship options are detailed in the Commercial Brochure as detailed 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 forthcoming season are here.
