Westwood Road, St Ives PE27 6DT
Monday 2nd May 2016
Kick-Off 3pm
Southern Football League Division One Central Play-off Final
St Ives Town v AFC Rushden & Diamonds
AFC Rushden & Diamonds will head east for the second time in a week on Bank Holiday Monday when they travel to face St Ives Town in the SL1C Play-off Final. The tie will be decided on the day, with extra-time and penalties if required. The Ives finished in fourth place in the league, one place above the Diamonds to earn the home advantage in the Final.
The Diamonds will be playing in their red strip for this game. Admission is £8 adults / £4 Concessions / £1 U16’s.
This is due to be the 200th senior game for the first team of AFC Rushden & Diamonds – for details and stats to date see here.
There is a Diamonds Match Diary here, and the club twitter feed will provide the latest information before, during and after the match using the link https://twitter.com/AFCRD or by following @AFCRD.
See below for details of all the social media options for following the Diamonds, as well as details on Radio Diamonds.
Our Opponents
St Ives Town FC was founded in 1887 and played in various local leagues until the mid 1980’s when they joined the UCL. They reached Step 4 after finishing second in the UCL behind Holbeach United in 2012-13, pipping Spalding to that spot. Last season they finished in ninth place in the Southern Football League Division One Central.
They are known as the Ives and are managed by Ricky Marheineke, who Diamonds fans may remember from battles with Huntingdon Town in 2013-14. Their website is here, and their Twitter feed here. Their club colours are black and white shirts and black shorts.
The two teams met in Cambridgeshire at the start of the season in what was the Diamonds first away game at Step 4 level. The game ended in a 2-2 draw – report here. The then met at the Dog & Duck in February with the Diamonds running out 2-0 winners – but they will know after facing Royston that league results count for nothing in the play-offs.
Getting There
AFC Rushden & Diamonds Travel will be running a coach for this fixture – see here for details.
The trip to St Ives is one of the shorter trips this season – around 34 miles from the Dog & Duck. You can find directions to Westwood Road, St Ives PE27 6DT here. Step-by-Step directions are on the Ives website as follows: From the A14 (Junction 26) continue along London Road (A1096). On entering the Town of St Ives (avoiding Town Centre), continue over the first roundabout and over the bypass (Harrison Way), continue over the next two roundabouts (still on Harrison Way). Turn left at the next two mini roundabouts onto the A1123 (Needingworth Road/St Audrey Lane). Turn left at the cross roads onto Ramsey Road where Westwood Road can be found on the right hand side (opposite the Fire Station). Continue to the bottom of the road where the turning for the football club can be found on the right hand side before the St Ivo Recreation Centre.
The initial advice from St Ives regarding parking is as follows:
“There is very limited parking on site within the ground, but a large free public car park immediately adjacent. Additional Parking will also be provided on the grass area opposite Slepe Hall Hotel (post code PE27 5RB). It is a two minute walk to the ground via a pathway from this field. Please advise your supporters arriving by car to use this grass area as the public car park outside the ground will fill quickly.”
Further initiatives on parking have been mentioned on Twitter, which include the possibility of “free parking on Monday courtesy of St Ivo School, High Leyes PE27 6RR. Adjacent to ground. over 100 spaces” and “We are in discussion with Town Council to open up local park for free parking, 2 mins from ground, subject to weather” – although the latter is subject to an inspection following recent rain. Further details and confirmation will be provided nearer to the date of the game if possible. A further update in the Hunts Post suggested that the local park is Paragon Park, and there is also parking in Meadow Lane at £1.
Other Info
The fixture list is here, and latest fixture news is here. You can find a directory of all of the Southern Football League Division One Central Clubs, with links to web pages, twitter feeds etc here, where you will also find a set of links to other useful resources.
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 are also going to launch 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.
