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Rushden and Diamonds are an English professional football club who play in the Conference National.
They were formed in 1992 by Max Griggs, the owner of the Dr Martens shoe company who bought two non-league clubs (Rushden Town and Irthlingborough Diamonds) and merged them to form a team which would compete in the Southern (Beazer Homes) League Division One and play its home games at Nene Park near Irthlingborough in Northamptonshire.
Rushden and Diamonds won promotion to the Beazer Homes Premier League in 1993 and GM Vauxhall Conference in 1996. In the season following promotion to the Conference, Brian Talbot was appointed as the club's new manager. As a player, he had turned out for Arsenal in the early 1980s. His previous managerial spells with West Bromwich Albion and Aldershot were disappointing, but at Rushden and Diamonds he was a huge success. After two near-misses they finally won promotion to the Football League as Conference champions in 2001. In their first season they reached the Division Three playoff final but lost to Cheltenham Town. In 2003 their promotion challenge was successful, they pipped Hartlepool United to the Division Three championship on the last day of the season and won their third promotion in eight seasons.
2003–04 was a difficult season for Rushden and Diamonds. The club's board and supporters were hopeful of another promotion challenge, and some promising results in the early part of the season suggested that this could be achieved. But a run of bad results during the winter saw the club slip down the table and in March 2004 Brian Talbot left the club after seven years as manager to take charge at Oldham Athletic. Barry Hunter, with no previous managerial experience, was appointed as the caretaker player-manager until the end of the season but the club continued to slide further down the Division Two table and they were relegated in 22nd place after losing their last game of the season.
Ernie Tippett was appointed manager of the team at the start of the 2004–05 season and, after a dismal run of results which saw the team the media predicted as promotion contenders fall to 22nd place in League Two, he was sacked. Barry Hunter became caretaker manager again, and although there were many applicants for the position, he was appointed full-time manager towards the end of the season. The club staved off relegation but released several players at the conclusion of the campaign.
Recently, Max Griggs has handed over power to a supporters' trust, pledged £750,000 over the next two seasons, and written off any debt the trust may have had due to Griggs' investments over the years he has been chairman.
The 2005–06 season has seen the club perform towards the lower end of the table as expected by the media, with manager Barry Hunter coming under fire on occasion. Hunter has rebuilt the squad in the January transfer window bringing in a total of 11 players, with two of them on loan until the end of the season at the time the window closed (31st January 2006), the other 9 are on permanent deals. Youth team products Andy Burgess, David Bell, and John Dempster have left the club all for officially undisclosed fees, with Jason Taylor also leaving when he decided not to take up a contract extension. On April 29, Rushden were relegated to the Conference after a 2-0 defeat at Boston United, which resulted in manager Barry Hunter being told his contract would not be renewed at the end of the season. Paul Hart took over as manager on May 23 and on 7th July Signed former Gillingham F.C. defender Chris Hope on a 2 year deal.
External links
Rushden & Diamonds F.C. | English football clubs | Football Conference | Sport in Northamptonshire
Rushden & Diamonds Football Club | Rushden & Diamonds FC | Rushden & Diamonds F.C. | Rushden & Diamonds FC
"Rushden & Diamonds F.C."