Northampton Spencer v AFC Rushden & Diamonds
Saturday 4th May 2013 – 3:00pm
ChromaSport and Trophies United Counties League Division One
Kingsthorpe Mill, Studland Road, Kingsthorpe, Northampton NN2 6NE.
The Diamonds will play the final game of their 2012/13 season when they visit Kingsthorpe Mill in Northampton to face Northampton Spencer in the ChromaSport and Trophies United Counties League Division One.
Our hosts have made the field next to the ground available for parking, and this can hold up to around 200 cars. This will be marshalled, and once full no further cars will be allowed down the narrow access road, allowing the later arrivals to find local parking as appropriate. The ground / facilities will be open from 1pm.
Our Opponents
Northampton Spencer FC was formed as Spencer School Old Boys in 1936. They joined the UCL Division 2 in 1968, moving to Kingsthorpe Mill in 1971. After progress in the UCL they won the UCL Premier title in 1992, but at the end of last season they took voluntary relegation back to UCL Division One.
The Millers do not appear to have a current club website.
They are currently managed by Ben Stone who won the October Manager of the Month award after his side won 3 games in the UCL as well as an FA Vase victory over Long Buckby. Since then the club suffered with significant flood damage to their ground and clubhouse and were unable to play home games, but despite their fixture backlog they have been on an impressive recent run, and are near the top of the current form table. There are several links between the two clubs, with Andy Peaks and Scott Carlin having been on the Millers management team with Quincy Shorunmu and Joe Merrill being regulars last season and at least four other Diamonds having been on the books at Kingsthorpe Mill at some point in their careers.
They play in Green and White.
During April the Millers played a challenging 12 games to catch up with their fixture backlog, winning 8, drawing 3 with a single defeat at Northampton Sileby Rangers. Their only home defeat this season was a 3-4 reverse at the hands of Harrowby United. On New Years Day they visited the Dog & Duck and the Diamonds ran out 2-1 winners with both home goals coming from leading scorer Jake Newman, with the Spencer reply coming from their top scorer Paul Pickering who has netted 25 times this season – report here.
Directions
Kingsthorpe Mill is in Studland Road, Kingsthorpe, Northampton NN2 6NE. The ground is reached via the A508 Market Harborough road out of the town. At Bristol St Motors Vauxhall garage (formerly W Grose), turn left at traffic lights into Thornton Road, then first right into Studland Road. Follow the road to the bottom of a hill and onto a track between allotments. Ground is after a right turn at the end of the track.
The ground is about 13 miles from the Dog & Duck – for directions / map see here.
Those preferring to use public transport will find it necessary to take a bus X46 or X47 to Northampton Greyfriars Bus Station and then to take Bus 4 from there to the stop at Bristol St Motors (see above) – you can use the Traveline website for door-to-door directions and bus timetables.
Other Info
Individual player profiles for the squad are available here, with a summary list of player and management profiles here. Summary stats for the season to date are here, including appearance, attendance and goalscoring details.
A full directory of UCL clubs, including links to websites, ground details etc, along with club links including Twitter details and some general UCL links is here.
