Rushden & Diamonds 1 Nottingham Forest 1

Rushden & Diamonds got their 2009-10 season underway at Nene Park, with a friendly against Nottingham Forest that finished with honours even.

The game ended 1-1 after the visitors took the lead when Radoslaw Majewski scored after just 90 seconds with a shot from 20 yards, but Aaron O'Connor put the Diamonds level shortly before half-time. The Diamonds had several chances to clinch the game in the second half but a draw was welcomed by both Billy Davies and Justin Edinburgh.

Manager Justin Edinburgh started with the majority of the players who had started the most recent friendly, against GrimsbyTown at Appledore on Saturday. This meant that recent loan signing Mark Byrne had to be content with a place on the bench, but Dale Roberts started against his old team, and loanee James Reid faced his Forest team-mates.

Nottingham Forest had arranged a further friendly with Rotherham on the same evening as the trip to Nene Park, but brought seven of their nine new signings to Northamptonshire as they split their squad between the two games, with Manager Billy Davies also preferring to watch these new signings at Nene Park..

Although their recognised strikeforce of Dele Adebola, Nathan Tyson and Robert Earnshaw went to Yorkshire, new signing Lee Camp started in goal at Nene Park, along with ex-Cobbler Luke Chambers, Lewis McGugan, Joel Lynch (signed from Brighton in the close season), Chris Gunter (a £1.75 million close-season signing from Spurs), Paul McKenna (a £750k close-season signing from Preston), Dexter Blackstock (a £500k signing from QPR), Radoslaw Majewski (a Polish International recently signed on a season-long loan from Polonia Warsaw) . Arron Davies,  and David McGoldrick (a £1M signing from Southampton), along with a number of fringe / youth team players on the bench.

Radoslaw Majewski opened the scoring after 90 seconds, being put through by Joel Lynch, and his 20 yard shot squeezed under Dale Roberts and into the bottom left corner of the net. The visitors look like taking control of the game early on, and it took an excellent saving tackle from Simon Downer to deny Lewis McGugan, after a misunderstanding between Porter and Stuart on the half-way line had given Forest a clear opening. Roberts also played his part in keeping his old team-mates at bay, as he saved well from McGugan.

The Diamonds recovered their composure well after this early onslaught, although it was midway through the half before they created their first real chance, as James Reid combined with Rob Wolleaston on the left, and Wolleaston's low cross from the by-line was well cut out by Chris Gunter to prevent Aaron O'Connor having a tap-in goal.

The Diamonds equalised shortly before half-time as a move involving Tomlin and Robinson on the left, saw the ball worked to Rob Wolleaston in the area, and he did well to trick his way past a defender to feed the ball to James Reid. Reid ran to the byline and squared to Aaron O'Connor who forced the ball over the line.

Tomlin then left the field with just a few seconds of the half remaining, to be replaced by Craig Farrell.

Half-Time : Rushden & Diamonds 1 Nottingham Forest 1

The Diamonds started the second half very brightly, with a run from Curtis Osano into the penalty area seeing his shot skew wide, then two good moves involving Aaron O'Connor saw the first end with a good save by Camp, and the second saw O'Connor take the ball on the run and beat a defender, but his cross was just behind Craig Farrell.

Goals : Majewski (2), O'Connor (43)

Diamonds Man of the Match : Aaron O'Connor

Referee : Carl Henry