When the Diamonds faced Kettering Town in the recent Hillier Cup game, Jack Ashton became the eighth Diamonds player to reach a notable landmark in both his career and in the history of AFC Rushden & Diamonds making 100 appearances for the club.
Jack follows in the footsteps of Sam Brown, the first Diamonds player to achieve this feat, Matt Gearing, Brad Harris, Matt Finlay, Tom Lorraine, Liam Dolman and Richard Bunting. He made his Diamonds debut against Wisbech Town in March 2014, helping the club to lift the UCL Premier and UCL League Cup trophies in the following season. Perhaps his most memorable moment was heading the late winner against Kettering Town in May 2016 that helped the Diamonds win the Hillier Senior Cup.
Now aged 27, he joined the Diamonds defence from Stamford AFC in March 2014. He joined the Daniels in 2013 from Banbury United, with whom he had two spells either side of playing for Oxford City. He originally joined Banbury from Cogenhoe United, having previously had a spell at Long Buckby. He appeared in the final six games of the season in 2013-14, and won the April 2014 Player of the Month award. He picked up two further Player of the Month Awards in 2014/15, and also won the Fans Player of the Season award as well as the Players’ Player of the Season trophy. Despite injury problems during 2015/16 he won two further player of the month awards as well as picking up the goal of the season award for his late winner that clinched the Hillier Senior Cup.
Jack was presented with an award to mark this achievement prior to the following home game. The award was kindly sponsored by P.W. House Jewellers of Rushden.
You can see Jack’s player profile with details of these games here.
(Pictures courtesy of Malcolm Swinden Photography Copyright Mal Swinden ©2014-18)
