Written by Max
Ground #6
AFC Rushden & Diamonds FC – Hayden Road
22nd September 2020 – FA Cup 1st Qualifying Round
AFC R&D (Step 3 Southern League Prem. Central) 0-5 Newark FC (Step 5 Midland Prem)
Attendance: 450 (Sell Out)
Entry: £10
Tuesday night brought us to our third game following Newark’s first ever attempt in the worlds oldest cup competition. After back to back 4-0 wins getting them to this stage, we assumed today would be their first real test coming up against a side 2 divisions higher.
AFC Rushden & Diamonds are a phoenix club formed in 2011 following the financial problems of their namesake who were members of the football league. This season will be their third at step 3 and they will be hoping to build on 2 solid mid table finishes in previous years. If this game is anything to go by though they have a lot of work to do!
Rushden were asleep from the kick off and speedy winger Kevin Bastos flew down the right wing bamboozling the defender and winning a penalty in the first minute! That was safely dispatched by Newark striker Ben Hutchinson and before Rushden had got going they were 3-0 down within the first 20 minutes! Newark were lethal with every attack and as half time came the 3 goal lead if anything flattered Rushden.
The second half was a lot more evenly matched as Newark sat back and invited the home side to attack. Unfortunately for them though they had no quality in the final third resulting in many shots and crosses flying high and wide behind for goal kicks. Newark still looking strong on the counter and had a few chances, burying 2 of them late on to complete the rout and go through to the next round. That’s 3 games played, 13 scored, none conceded! They will be a team most will be hoping to avoid in Friday’s draw and we look forward to hopefully following them again on their road to Wembley.
Now to our review of the ground itself, which AFC share with Step 6 side Rushden & Higham United.
Location: 7/10
Hayden Road is located within a housing estate in the east of the Town of Rushden. There are plenty of places to park on the roads nearby and the ground will be very accessible for residents looking to follow their local side. The only negative is the fact Rushden has no train station and we attempted to visit the nearest pub according to google maps, but as we arrived we discovered it is now closed.
Kit: 8/10
Rushden’s home kit is a very well designed shirt and probably the best we have seen so far on this blog. The red and blue band across the top of the shirt made it stand out from any others we have seen and the bright red numbers on the back made it clear to pick out who was who. I also particularly liked the socks with ‘AFCR&D’ stitched into the design.
Facilities: 6/10
Hayden Road contains 2 bars selling alcohol, as well as a small shack behind the goal selling hot and soft drinks. The bars both had a wide range of beers on draft, although for some reason at tonights game they were only offering cans from the fridge. The bar itself was a bit of a mess as they had obviously had to make changes to the layout due to COVID-19 restrictions. They had multiple chairs and tables piled up along one side which didn’t look particularly great. I’m sure though when things get back to normal the place would look a lot nicer with everything where it should be.
Look: 7/10
This is a difficult one for us to judge as with this being our first visit to a step 3 ground, we have nothing to compare it to at a similar level. The ground seemed to have 2 sides to it. Behind one goal were two fantastic stands. One containing shiny blue seats and another with 2 levels of terracing. Both wouldn’t look out of place in the national league. We stood in the terrace for the full 90 minutes and had a fantastic view of the action. The rest of the ground though was a different story, with older stands looking a bit worse for wear. Hard standing all around the ground as you would expect at this level and overall a very nice set up. Also a shout out to the stewards. This was by far the best set up Covid restriction wise. There was a strict one way system in place and stewards were constantly making sure social distancing was followed by all.
Food and Drink: 6.5/10
As stated above the bars served a great selection of draught beer, or so it seemed. Sadly cans only on this occasion although Rushden do gain a bonus half point for having Dark fruits available making Emma extremely happy!
We had been told to look out for the burgers as they were ‘Legendary’. At £6 each though I must say we were slightly disappointed. I’m not saying they were a bad burger, and if we had paid £3 each for them I would probably be singing its praises. Sadly though the hype was not lived up to and in the end we weren’t overly impressed.
TOTAL SCORE: 34.5/50
In conclusion, we had a fantastic night watching the Highwaymen show their class against much higher opposition. Unlike our burgers they are proving well worth of the hype surrounding them lately and we are really excited to see our local side doing so well. The ground itself is a good one and we would recommend a visit. They go top of our Leaderboard as it stands which you can check out here: League Table
Emma’s Ground Guide 