Diamonds will travel to Kempston on Saturday 2nd July (3:00 pm kick-off) for their opening game of the 2022/23 pre-season schedule.
The fixture is ‘pay on the gate’ and admission prices are as follows:
- £5 adults
- £1 under-18’s
Our hosts
Kempston play at Hillgrounds Stadium, Hillgrounds Road, Kempston, MK42 8SZ and currently play in the Southern League Division One Central (Step 4).
They finished 18th in the 2021/22 season which led to them contesting a one-off play-off match as one of the remaining six third-from-bottom teams against one of the six runners-up from Step 5 that had the fewest points per game (PPG) at the end of the season. After a 2-2 draw after extra-time against Eccleshill United, Kempston emerged victorious 5-4 on penalties to preserve their Step 4 status.
Chris Nunn was officially appointed as their new first-team manager in May. To find out more about the club, visit their website.
Meetings between the clubs
Diamonds and Kempston have faced each other on nine previous occasions (the last three during pre-season), with Diamonds winning all but one of the matches which was drawn.
The full list of results between the two sides have been:
Diamonds 3-0 Kempston (Gearing, Taylor, Koriya) – United Counties League Premier, 28th December 2013
Kempston 1-3 Diamonds (Harris, Morgan, Parkinson) – United Counties League Premier, 15th March 2014
Diamonds 5-1 Kempston (OG, Dunkley, Koriya, Dolman, Lamb-Johnson) – United Counties League Premier, 21st October 2014
Kempston 1-2 Diamonds (Harris x2) – United Counties League Premier, 24th March 2015
Kempston 1-1 Diamonds (Gyasi) – Southern League Division One East, 28th August 2017
Diamonds 3-1 Kempston (Robbins x3) – Southern League Division One East, 26th December 2017
Kempston 0-2 Diamonds (Ward, Diamond) – Harry Robinson Trophy (pre-season friendly), 31st July 2018
Kempston 1-2 Diamonds (Trialist, Lorraine) – Pre-season friendly, 22nd August 2020
Kempston 1-7 Diamonds (Smith, Jones x3, Diamond x2, Trialist) – Harry Robinson Trophy (pre-season tournament), 6th July 2021
Can’t make the game?
Our Radio Diamonds team will be providing live commentary as the action unfolds – tune in at mixlr.com/radiodiamondsafc. Listeners will be able to message with their comments and thoughts on 07394 309591.
We will also doing live updates on our Twitter account at twitter.com/AFCRD. Highlights and interviews will be available after the game at youtube.com/AFCRDTV.
Match preview: Ollie Mortimer
