The Youth Team were narrowly beaten by Southend United at Nene Park on Saturday in the first game of the Puma Junior Alliance Cup Competition.
Rushden were missing Aynsley McDonald who was away on International duty in Portugal with Wales, Lewis Hallford and Matt Evans who were rested from the start line up following the midweek win in the FA Youth Cup while Sean Calcutt was not quite ready to return after six weeks on the sidelines with a foot injury.
After a fairly even start, Southend began to look the more dangerous side and took the lead with a neat strike from Ronnie Jones just outside the box and then added a second just before half time when the home side failed to clear a corner and Justin Hazell netted from 12 yards.
Rushden's best chance of the half fell to Nabil Sharif after a good move but his shot was comfortably saved by Nathan McDonald in the Southend goal.
Shariff controls it and shoots - but his shot is saved
Half Time Rushden & Diamonds 0 Southend United 2
The second half saw a much improved performance with the young Diamonds side coping far better with the challenge posed by Southend's attacking formation.
Dan Easlea rises to a header
Switches midway through the half saw the introduction of Evans, Hallford and Adam Sharpe and the home side began to cause Southend some problems - so much so that the visitors changed their formation in a bid to maintain their lead.
This should have been reduced in the 66th minute when John Wigglesworth had a great chance to pull a goal back but his effort went just over from close range.
Wigglesworth's shot goes just over
The Diamonds kept up the pressure but their goal was to come too late as Lewis Hilliard netted an injury time penalty to make it 2-1.
Hilliard sends the keeper the wrong way
Afterwards, Manager Paul Driver commented "We struggled against their system and style of play in the first half and deserved to go in behind but we came out in the second half and played much better.We coped much better with their formation and this was shown when they switched to match up with us.
So, all in all, it was a match where the boys developed by learning how to deal with different questions posed by Southend compared to our previous opponents this season.
We play QPR this week and it may well be that they'll play in a similar way to Southend so we'll see how we've learnt and progressed after today"
Full Time Rushden & Diamonds 1Southend United 2
Rushden Team:Day (Captain), Cox, Kirby, Phillips (Evans 65), Hayes, Higgins, Freshwater (Hallford 70), Hilliard, Wigglesworth (Sharpe 70), Sharif, Easlea.
Sub Not Used. Broadbent (GK).
