FAC R1: Rushden & Diamonds 0 Yeovil 1

Completing The Circle: Rushden & Diamonds 0 Yeovil Town 1 - Match report and comments by Cruncher

Yeovil at last triumphed in the FA Cup First Round as they overcame the team that started their miserable four barren years in the competition. Rushden & Diamonds, although not reproducing the 2006 humiliation of playing neat triangles through the Yeovil ranks, were again a stern test. Yeovil carved out the better chances overall but it was hard going to find their free-flowing stride against an organised and well-oiled Rushden machine that had unified purpose and some pace at the back.

I had anguished whether my pre-match Diamond Burger was as good as the day was going to get, the run of FA Cup blanks, recent defensive lapses and Rushden form had firmly sorted this task as one of hope ahead of expectancy. The team was as expected without Gavin Williams at his club's request, Luke Ayling still waiting for parts of his ribs to be prised off Dean Lewington's elbow and returned in the post. Andy Welsh and Andy Williams came in with Jean-Paul Kalala dropping to right-back. Diamonds also lined up 4-4-2, both teams looking to use width.

The first twenty minutes or so was a battle: unforced errors spoiling the odd bit of Yeovil promise, the Glovers frustratingly not testing Joe Day in the home goal while facing (as were the away support) an annoying low sun. As time wore on they did create some good chances, the best of which was through excellent Dean Bowditch work to set up Sam Williams with a firm thump that unluckily hit the post. Bowditch continued to harrass the home defence, he had a crisp shot just over and hit another too near to Joe Day as well as setting up Paul Huntington to head against the bar. Diamonds though were competing strongly and created chances of their own. John Sullivan saved excellently from Ryan Charles, and he may have also got the touch that sent a Lewis Spence rasper on to the bar - hard to tell in that sun.

Yeovil pegged the Diamonds back a bit more for periods after the break, but it remained a fairly even contest. The Glovers could not make their better opportunities count, while the Diamonds still threatened the Yeovil box without penetration. This finely-balanced state of affairs certainly added to the cup tie edge as the minutes counted down, the away end playing their part with passionate voice. The Yeovil support remained positive and sustained and admirably led by the very vocal supporters along the back of the Air Wair.

When the goal came, not many could tell who the scorer was. Although the stabbing sun had gone by the start of the second half, the far-end view under floodlight was murky. It was clear though that Sam Williams had set Bowditch up well for a strong shot that Joe Day saved. Andy Williams, it transpired, followed up to score his first Yeovil goal at the most crucial of moments with just seven minutes remaining. I will go against the grain a tad by letting my bias serve me well here and suggest that there was a degree of sanity in letting subjective opinion triumph. Bowditch had after all gained the space after his run and shot, and although he hindered the keeper's view he hadn't drifted offside on purpose to gain advantage. And .. er .. if you give me a few hours I will dig up another straw to clutch at. Anyway, such luck for Yeovil is as rare now as a spare Rushden fiver, as Antalya explains on the Green Room: the stance WE have to face very often and that is "Sod you" we won you didn't. Quite right, cheerio Diamonds, hello Round Two.

A quick appraisal of performances: John Sullivan was excellent throughout - please stay fit, John. The back four were good collectively and individually, Huntington the more impressive of the centre-backs on the day with Virgo still having a decent game. Jean-Paul Kalala in an unfamiliar role was involved a lot and impressed defensively and going forward. Nathan Jones too was decent, one vital clearing header was the highest I have seen him leap, as he responded to Sullivan's forceful demand of 'Away!' Shaun MacDonald was everywhere, superb engine and excellent all-round display, with Owain Tudur Jones blowing hot and cold. Justin Edinburgh's tactics kept wingers Welsh and Williams on their defensive toes, Williams's direct approach the more threatening on the day. Up front, Sam Williams had a day littered with too many mistakes and some basic ones to boot, with some good bits chucked in. He has been doing well in his spell back since suspension, and this comparative off-day adds weight to my theory that we need a back up for his role. He was unlucky to hit the post after being superbly set up by Bowditch, who was class throughout but unfortunately without the shine on his shooting boots.

A mention before I forget of the Rushden hospitality and the stewards I encountered - super-friendly and all round top-notch.

Rushden themselves have come full circle, back to the financial reality of pre-merger days, as the Yeovil fans - noisily, predictably and merrily - reminded them. This fixture was down by almost a thousand on the one of four years ago, and with home crowds averaging around twelve-hundred it will be hard for them to keep hold of Edinburgh. Sustaining a challenge for the play-offs might be key to that, but he stands out as a manager ripe for a step-up.

Yeovil didn't find top gear with their flowing play by some distance but credit and respect is due to their opponents for that. The joyful players' celebrations might have confused the neutral as to who was the underdog but this was a vital hard-earned win. So there we are, a cup tie that could have gone either way, Yeovil with a bit more bite on the day but owing the day in the end to a bit of fortunate refereeing subjectivity. Would we have taken that at the start of the day? .. You betcha! ... bring on the draw for Round 2.

Cruncher

Diamonds aren't forever

This week's Fa Cup 1st round draw brought the Glovers yet another away tie to contend with and if that wasn't bad enough also brought us face-to-face with one of our most difficult opponents of the last decade, that made-up club from the middle of nowhere, Rushden & Diamonds FC.

We couldn't have had much worse a draw to be honest. Rushden (or Ru$hden, as I still prefer to think of them even if, like ourselves, they don't have a pot to piss in these days), like Oxford United last season, are doing well in the Conference, are full-time, and will relish the chance of doing over a struggling League One side. They'll especially relish the chance of doing us over as they've already done it once before, four years ago.

Rushden & Diamonds as a club have only been in existence since 1992 but they've packed a lot of promotions and relegations into that time. They were of course formed on the back of one man's money, that man being Max Griggs, the head of the Dr Martens footwear empire. Fair play to Max, he made a good pair of boots and initially his brand new sparkling football club - the bastard offspring of a merger between Rushden Town and Irthlingborough Diamonds - did well too, eventually rising from the depths of the Southern League Midland Division all the way to the heady heights of League One in the Football League. On the way of course they came up against ourselves, particularly in the 2000-01 season, when they pipped the Glovers to the Conference title and promotion to the Football League. The final table showed a 6 point gap between the Diamonds and the 2nd-placed Glovers that season, but the table didn't tell anything like the full story of that nine months. If you've got a spare hour or so then it's well worth browsing through the Ciderspace news archives for that time, and I'm not saying that just because I helped write them! It was a fascinating season with more twists and turns in the plotlines than your average episode of Eastenders, and was really the start of the beginning of the modern era of Yeovil Town, though at the time it felt more like the beginning of the end, with manager Colin Addison being controversially sacked at the end of the season and some of our best players - Warren Patmore and Tony Pennock in particular - leaving to join Rushden in the Football League, a bitter pill to swallow at the time.

Still, we had the last laugh. Max Griggs continued to throw his money at the club and Rushden eventually made it all the way to League One, but there the bubble burst. The Dr Martens empire hit the financial rocks, and Griggs's money injections, amounting to an average of £2.5 million per season (!) since their Conference days, stopped. Now owned by their Supporters Trust and for the first time not living beyond their means, Rushden, no longer known as Ru$hden, came back down the leagues as fast as they went up them before bottoming out in the Conference, where they've remained since. As they went down we of course went up in a rather more stable and sustainable manner and now the (Doc Martens) boot is on the other foot. Until a week on Saturday anyway! Wouldn't it be nice if, just for once, we had a bit of a cup run? Is it really too much to ask?

There are more pressing concerns before then. This Saturday sees Swindon coming to Huish Park followed by a trip to Franchise FC next Tuesday. We're not quite back in crisis mode yet, but after 2 defeats in a row leaving us a scanty one place above the relegation zone it's important that we get something out of Saturday's game against our Wiltshire near-neighbours. The bookies make the Glovers narrow 8/5 favourites for the win, with the draw priced at 23/10 and a Swindon win at 13/8. My self-imposed unwritten rule of always betting on a home win when the odds are against means that my fiver is in Skivo's mens hands, god help me. No bet last week because my old computer decided to blow up, running total: -£10.25p.

Just read: Gardens of the Sun by Paul McAuley: Excellent sequel to the equally good The Quiet War. Both books are set in the future a century or so from now with mankind colonising the solar system and, being mankind, fighting each other all the way. I'd thoroughly recommend both books to anyone who likes intelligent, hard s-f with a human touch. Read The Quiet War first, the sequel may not make much sense otherwise - but do read them both!