Cod Almighty | Article

by Richard Lord

5 April 2004

Hang on, what's this then? It seems that Rushden & Diamonds are quietly, but very politely, making their steady way into the danger zone of the second division, almost in altruistic fashion to help the other endangered teams out. It's as if they want to be part of something, because for most of the season, they've been stuck right in the middle with nothing to look forward to. There have been no play-off aspirations, and no nervous moments near the bottom of the table. That is, until now.

Having lost five of their last six games, Rushden have found it increasingly difficult to reach the 50-point mark that managers appear to be labelling the safety position. But the bottom clubs always seem to be winning recently. Take last Saturday, for instance; all the four clubs in the relegation zone won. So will 50 points be enough? I wouldn't bet on it, although that's not what I'm analysing right now.

For quite some weeks, Town fans have recognised which clubs are in relegation bother, and Rushden weren't one of them. Yes, Wycombe have been dire all season and Notts County have spent very little time outside the bottom four. Chesterfield were truly awful for the first 15 games of the season, although their recent good form appears to have levelled off somewhat. Peterborough couldn't win at home for those nice little toffee pennies you get in Quality Street (although I prefer the toffees in a box of Roses, actually). Stockport have had an affectionate relationship with drawing too many games and Brentford were simply crap until they sacked Wally Downes.

Now a new team has entered the equation, and we don't know what to make of it. Suddenly everyone is highlighting the home game against Rushden in a couple of weeks' time and getting very excited indeed. "If we can just beat Rushden, then that'll put us on the same amount of points they have," says everyone. "They've lost to Peterborough, Brentford and Stockport recently!"

There's no doubting that Rushden have had a dip in form since they lost their manager Brian Talbot. They lost 'star players' Onandi Lowe, Paul Hall and Marcus Bignot on transfer deadline day and current manager Barry Hunter now needs to prepare his team to play Barnsley (home) and Brighton (away) over the Easter weekend.

Rushden have picked up as many points as the Mariners on their travels this season, but have a considerably better goal difference to show for it. On current form, you'd expect Town to win when the two sides meet at Blundell Park. But when you consider that 'good form' constitutes two consecutive games when Town don't lose, then the two teams' respective 'form' could drastically alter in the games between now and then.

Will the Diamonds find themselves in a spare-underpants situation come the last day of the season? Let's hope they do, but in true fashion they're more likely to beat Barnsley on Saturday to move on to 50 points and we'll forget that we ever considered them as potential relegation material for a week.