Dog and Duck Stadium, London Road, Wellingborough NN8 2DP
Kick-Off 7:45pm
Northants FA Hillier Senior Cup
Tuesday 3rd November 2015
AFC Rushden & Diamonds v Desborough Town
AFC Rushden & Diamonds return to cup action on Tuesday evening when Desborough Town are the visitors in the Northants FA Hillier Senior Cup (KO 7:45pm).
The competition involves the 13 Northants FA affiliated non-league teams at Step 5 level or above. This now includes Brackley Town Saints, who play in the Hellenic League, as well as Northampton Spencer and Rothwell Corinthians who moved up to Step 5 this season, with Long Buckby dropping out due to their relegation to Step 6. Ten teams played in the first round, with the Diamonds and two other receiving byes into the second round, so there are now eight teams left in the competition. See here for the full draw details.
Competition rules mean that players who have played in this competition will not be eligible for the NFA Junior Cups – the Diamonds U21 side will start in the NFA Lower Junior Cup this weekend.
Should the tie be level after 90 minutes then extra time will NOT be played, and the game will go directly to a penalty shootout.
This is an all-pay game. Pricing for this game has been confirmed as £6 Adults, £3 Concessions (Over 60s, students, U16s) with U8s free.
There are plans to run a trial of a new facility for Diamonds Members to vote for their Man of the Match at this game – for more details see the Members’ Forum.
Our Opponents
Desborough Town have the rather unusual nickname of “Ar Tarn”, which is believed to have been adopted from the local pronunciation of “Our Town”. The club was founded in 1896 and joined the Northants League, which was later to be renamed as the United Counties League – and they have remained in the same competition for over a century. They have won the league title nine times, a record beaten only by Rushden Town.
As the season began they were managed by Ian Walker, but he stepped down recently and his assistant Chris Bradshaw is now in charge. They play in all blue. Their website is here, and their twitter feed here. They are in a mid-table position in the UCL Premier. In the first round of this competition they knocked out Wellingborough Town after a penalty shootout.
In the 2013-14 season the Diamonds entered the competition for the first time, but went out of the competition at the first hurdle, losing 2-1 to Wellingborough Town in 2013-14 – report here. They then lost 4-3 to Brackley Town last season – report here.
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 two covered standing areas. You can see a stadium plan that maps out these facilities here, along with details of catering facilities (including a snack bar menu / prices with details of the famous Diamond Burger).
There is always a need for additional volunteers to help with ongoing maintenance and matchday work, as detailed here.
Other Info
The fixture list is here, and latest fixture news is here. Details of the Diamonds playing squad and management team are here. Individual player profiles for the Diamonds squad are available here. Player and Match Stats are here, and previous seasons stats are here.
Player and Match Sponsorship options are detailed in the Commercial Section of this website as detailed here
There are a range of social media options available to help follow the Diamonds, with the well used and liked twitter feed to the fore, as well as a Facebook page and Club Instagram Page (follow afcrd). For this season we have also launched a Snapchat service, accessible on mobile platforms such as an iOS or Android Phone, so you can follow the live matchday story by finding afcrd on Snapchat.
Radio Diamonds will be broadcasting for this game – details here.
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 Hevey 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.
People accessing the website via Tablet or Mobile who want to access some of the nested menus on the website may find the “Quick Links” tab useful – found just above the “Hevey” logo on the homepage.
