Rushden & Diamonds 0 Arsenal XI 2

Rushden & Diamonds went down to their second defeat in quick succession as they were well beaten by a skilful Arsenal XI, but it was not the result that caused Manager Hill the most concern, rather the injury sustained by Daryl Clare in the first quarter - a facial injury which required hospital treatment.

The Arsenal XI was a mixture of reserve and youth team players, managed by Neil Banfield with a number of players who might be expected to feature for the senior team at some point in the future, such as Nacer Barazite, Keiran Gibbs and Rene Steer.

Diamonds manager Garry Hill made a number of changes from the side that lost to Derby County, including Portuguese triallist Paulo Montiero in the side at Centre-back. He also named Jamie McGuinness on the bench for his first appearance at NenePark.

The line-up was a more orthodox 4-4-2 than seen against Derby, with Andy Burgess starting at wide right midfield, and Michael Corcoran at right back.

The first 15 minutes were largely even, and largely uneventful, although Lee Phillips was proving a handful for the Arsenal defence with his willing running. As the quarter hour mark passed a dangerous looking cross from the right was met by Daryl Clare, but his well directed header was well caught by Szczesny. As the play moved to the other end Clare was left lying on the pitch, and after some treatment from Simon Parsell he left the pitch under his own steam and walked straight down the tunnel. Initial thought that this might just be for attention to a cut was quickly dispelled when Dean McDonald came on as a replacement, and it was later discovered that the striker had suffered a serious looking jaw injury that required hospital treatment.

It was clear that the Diamonds still need to work on their set piece routines, as, even with both coach Hope and captain Woodhouse on the field, there was a total lack of communication over a corner, with a quick short corner being taken while the big centre backs were still getting forwards, and thus Andy Burgess' cross found only the space in the area where the centre backs might have been a few seconds later.

Alan Marriott looked at home facing the skilful Arsenal strikeforce, and confidently fielded a well hit shot from Gibbs.

On the half-hour came a moment of controversy, and one of the Diamonds best chances of the match - Dean McDonald chased a through ball from Curtis Woodhouse, and was narrowly beaten to it by Szczesny, but for some reason the Polish keeper tried to find a team-mate with an intricate layoff which Andy Burgess intercepted and laid off to Lee Phillips. The striker's shot looked bound for the largely unguarded net, but defender Bartley blocked the shot with his arm just outside the area.

Referee Burt took action appropriate for a friendly, and spoke to the defender but took no further action (something the Diamonds cannot really complain about, because had Mr Burt been enforcing stricter rules then they would possibly have ended the game with nine men).

As with most Diamonds set pieces on the night, the free kick was wasted.

The Arsenal youngsters seemed to take this as a signal to step up their game, and Gareth Jelleyman was rather fortunate when an attempted hooked clearance whilst prone went straight to Fonte, and he laid off to Barazite, who had to be fouled to prevent him getting a strike on goal. With a couple of other good looking chances narrowly eluding oncoming strikers, and a couple of wasted free kicks the Arsenal team was starting to get well on top, but an error in midfield by Marcus Kelly contributed to their opening goal as he completely missed Gareth Jelleyman with a pass to the supporting defender, and Arsenal broke via Dunne, forcing a corner. The corner was taken by the impressive Gibbs was met by an unchallenged leap from Rui Fonte for the opening goal.

A great move involving McDonald, Burgess and Challinor almost produce a rapid reply and Kelly almost made amends for his earlier error shortly before half-time as his corner from the left went over the polish keeper to clip the top of the bar.

Half time: Rushden & Diamonds 0 Arsenal XI 1

The Diamonds made a number of changes at half-time, including taking off right back Michael Corcoran, moving Jon Challinor to right back, and as in earlier friendlies, it took the side some time to settle at the back when this sort of change was made, and within 5 minutes the Arsenal youngsters had taken a two goal leadA good run at the centre of the defence by substitute Murphy was slipped to the left corner of the area to Nacer Barazite who was in acres of space, and he coolly slipped the ball past Alan Marriott.

Andy Burgess had moved to central midfield as a result of the half-time changes, and he was now demonstrating his skill, ball control and vision as he orchestrated moved such as one which led to a corner on the left, taken by Marcus Kelly which Paulo Monteiro managed to direct to Dean McDonald towards the corner of the 6 yard box, but although the striker kept the ball down well, he was narrowly wide.

Another Burgess inspired move saw the ball go via Jelleyman and McDonald on the left, via Burgess and Phillips to Tomlin who forced a corner.

McDonald was looking dangerous, and he cut inside from the right in a similar way to his goal against Peterborough, but this time his shot was from a more direct angle, but it struck the post and away to safety.

At the other end Arsenal could easily had added to their lead, with a Gibbs shot from 20 yards hitting the bar. There were also a couple of occasions where had it not been a friendly the referee would have been forced to take action - firstly a Hope challenge, and then Phil Gulliver had to haul back Fonte after losing the ball to him and seeing him set off on a run towards goal.

For Arsenal, Rene Steer was getting forward more, and his ball into Barazite saw the Dutch striker turn and shoot but the shot was well saved by Marriott.

Lee Tomlin almost presented Michael Rankine with a great chance as soon as he came on, but the pass was just behind the onrushing striker. Tomlin started to combine well with the impressive Osano as the shape at the back was restored, but he too was lucky the referee was in lenient mode, as a blatant bodycheck on Steer was only punished by a lecture.

A special mention should go to the match officials, who clearly took the fact it was a pre-season game into account, and kept the game flowing and with 22 players on the pitch.

The game ended with a scoreline that reflected the game well, but the concern will be the extent of the Clare injury. The Diamonds now have a free weekend prior to the visit of a Tottenham Hotspur XI on Monday evening.

Full-time: Rushden & Diamonds 0 Arsenal XI 2

Teams:

Rushden & Diamonds (White):

 Alan Marriott , Michael Corcoran , Gareth Jelleyman , Chris Hope , Paulo Monteiro , Andy Burgess , Jon Challinor , Curtis Woodhouse (Cpt), Marcus Kelly , Lee Phillips , Daryl Clare .

Subs : Dean McDonald (for Clare 20), Scott Mitchell (for Woodhouse 45), Lee Tomlin (for Corcoran 45), Justyn Roberts (for Hope 63), Curtis Osano (for Burgess 63), Phil Gulliver (for Montiero 63), Michael Rankine (for Phillips 75), Sam Smith (for McDonald 75), Jamie McGuinness (for Kelly 75), Jake Beecroft (for Challinor 75), Martyn Margarson (Not Used)

Arsenal XI (Amber) : Wojciech Szczesny, Adu Ogogo, Rene Steer, James Dunne, Kyle Bartley, Paul Rodgers (Cpt), Sanchez Watt, Kieran Gibbs, Rui Fonte, Nacer Barazite, Jay Thomas

Subs : Emmanuel Frimpong (for Thomas 45), James Shea (for Steer 86) , Luke Ayling (for Murphy 71), Thomas Cruise (for Watt 45), Rhys Murphy (for Bartley 45), Craig Eastmond (Not Used)

Goals: Rui Fonte (35), Nacer Barazite (50)

Referee: Mr S Burt

Attendance: 1480 (away approx 100)

Man of the Match nominated by Match Sponsors Nationwide : Andy Burgess