Rushden & Diamonds 1 Peterborough United 3
The Diamonds hosted League One Peterborough United in their first home pre-season friendly of the 2010-11 campaign.
An entertaining game ended in a 3-1 win for the visitors, a scoreline that reflected the balance of play. The Posh took a 2-0 lead before Aaron O'Connor pulled a goal back in the first half, but Charlie Lee scored the third goal towards the end of the game.
The Diamonds started with a back four of Corcoran, Day, Osano and Stuart in front of Dale Roberts. The midfield trio were Power, Spence and Huke, with Lee Tomlin, Aaron O'Connor and Sam Smith up front.
Peterborough fielded a strong team, many of whom had Championship experience, and that class, along with an extra two weeks of pre-season training certainly made a difference in the first quarter of the game. The visitors took the lead after six minutes when a George Boyd and Nana combined down the left, and a dangerous cross was deflected past Dale Roberts by Curtis Osano under pressure from Dave Hibbert. They increased this lead after 29 minutes when Nathaniel Mendez Laing won the ball from Jamie Day near the half-way line, and he laid the ball to Mark Little who fired past Roberts.
The Diamonds had not really troubled McKeown in the Posh goal, but after 37 minutes they got a goal back, when an Alan Power through ball put Aaron O'Connor clear, and he lobbed the ball over the advancing keeper.
In the second half the Diamonds made a large number of changes, with Kurt Robinson and Ryan Charles coming on at half-time, and then 8 other changes were made during the half, with Matt Johnson replacing Michael Corcoran after 56 minutes, then Joe Keehan and triallist Joe Yoffe replaced Spence and O'Connor after 66 minutes.
Triallist Dan Bailey replaced Jamie Stuart after 70 minutes. Shane Huke was replaced at right back by Morgan Phillips after 74 minutes after he felt a touch of cramp following a solid challenge. The final change saw Lee Tomlin replaced by Nabil Shariff after 83 minutes. Max York and Joe Day were the other Diamonds players on the bench who were not used. Max Porter, Craig Farrell, Justin Miller and Aynsley McDonald were unavailable dur to slight knocks which were not risked.
A more even second-half, disrupted by the substitutions saw Dale Roberts make a great save from a Queudrue free kick, but the visitors third goal came when Craig Mackail-Smith shrugged off an Osano challenge to set up Charlie Lee, who neatly chipped the ball over Roberts.
The Posh starting line-up was James McKeown, Mark Little, James Wesolowski, Aaron Mclean, George Boyd, Grant McCann, Dave Hibbert, Nathaniel Mendez-Laing, Seth Nana Ofori-Twumasi, Kelvin Langmead, Ryan Bennett.
The Posh substitutes were Frank Queudrue, Charlie Lee, Craig Mackail-Smith, Josh Simpson, Aaron Davies, Danny Mills, Carl Piergianni, Scott Griffiths, Romone McCrae and Liam Chilvers. Goalkeeper Joe Lewis was also on the bench, but was not used.
The Diamonds now set off to Devon for their pre-season tour with fixtures on Wednesday and Thursday evenings in North Devon.
Attendance: 943
