Today I'm going back eleven years to 2010 and York City's visit to Nene Park, Northamptonshire to play Rushden & Diamonds in the Blue Square Bet Premier (now known as the National League). Nene Park was a lovely facility following it's reconstruction and was certainly fit to grace the Football League.
Rushden & Diamonds (R&D) are or were a Football Club that can be likened to a comet. Appearing suddenly, moving quickly, shining brightly for a short while and then disappearing again just as quickly. The football traditionalists will cry "new money" as if that's some sort of crime but it applies at every level of the game and probably always will (ask Newcastle United today). Money doesn't always buy success but it certainly improves the probability of it and, in the case of R&D, the money in question came from the Dr Martens boot and shoe empire and owner Max Griggs.
R&D were formed from the merger of Rushden Town and Irthlingborough Diamonds in 1992 and started in the Southern League Midland Division, at the time at the seventh tier of the English football pyramid. By 2001 R&D had made it to the Football League and, in their first season they reached the Play-Off Final (lost to Cheltenham Town) before winning League Division 3 (the fourth tier of English Football) the following season. The higher level of football proved to be the pinnacle for R&D and, with Max Griggs tiring of his plaything and turning off the financial taps, the club struggled and were duly relegated. Back at the fourth level, Griggs handed the club over to it's Supporters Trust but the slide continued and, in 2006, the club was relegated back into Non-League.
In the final season before the demise of R&D, 1,132 hardy souls watched York City thrash them. Danny Racchi scored the first from a direct free kick and Michael Rankine nodded home the second. Former R&D striker Rankine, a cousin of Danny Rose, was always a handful for defences and was built like the proverbial brick outhouse but his goal scoring return always left something to be desired (22 goals in 101 League appearances for York). Ashley Chambers chipped the keeper for York's third and we hadn't even reached half time. The scoring was concluded in the second period with a tap in for Neil Barrett.
York finished a promising season in eighth place in the Conference, seven points short of the Play-Off places with Crawley Town becoming Champions with 105 points. R&D finished, symbolically, in thirteenth place and, that summer, the club folded. The implosion of the club led to the formation of a new fan owned phoenix club known as AFC Rushden & Diamonds who currently play in the Southern League Premier Division (Central). Sadly, Nene Park didn't survive the turmoil and has since been demolished. Such a waste of a lovely football facility.
CRB Match No. 1778
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