Rushden & Diamonds F.C.

Rushden and Diamonds 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 managerial spells with West Bromwich Albion (February 1989-January 1991) and Aldershot (February-November 1991) 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. Ernie Tippett, with no previous managerial experience, was appointed as his replacement 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.

Rushden and Diamonds are now members of the Coca-Cola Football League Two, which was until the end of 2003–04 known as Division Three.

External links

• Rushden & Diamonds Official Website