WE MEET AGAIN - AFC RUSHDEN & DIAMONDS

[Alan Beckett]

WE MEET AGAIN - AFC RUSHDEN & DIAMONDS

We have never played, as far as I am aware, Rushden & Diamonds or the new AFC Rushden & Diamonds ever before.

A.F.C. Rushden & Diamonds is an English football club based in Rushden in Northamptonshire. They played their opening season at Kiln Park, the home of Raunds Town, in 2011–12 and subsequently shared the Dog & Duck ground with Wellingborough Town from July 2012 to the summer of 2017. A groundshare agreement with Rushden & Higham United was agreed for the 2017–18 season. The club was formed by supporters in July 2011, after Rushden & Diamonds, a former Football League club, were expelled from the Football Conference and liquidated.

At an open meeting chaired by a supporters group called SaveRDFC, a mandate was agreed upon to create a phoenix club, fully owned and controlled by its supporters. A team was created and accepted into the Northants Senior Youth League for the 2011–12 season, while a senior team played in the United Counties Football League Division One for the 2012–13 season. Two promotions later and they will in the NPL Prem.

The 2022–23 season saw the club relegated from Step 3, Northern League Premier, in their fifth season at the level, a 0–0 draw on 25 March confirming their fate with seven matches remaining and so for the 2023/24 season they members of the NPL Division One Midland.