The Youth Team were defeated but not out fought in the First Round Proper of the FA Youth Cup sponsored by e.on.

215 fans occupied the South Stand to see the Diamonds take on local Puma Youth Alliance rivals Northampton Town. The Diamonds starting the brightest with a period of early pressure, using the wingers particularly well, forcing saves from Paul Walker, the Cobblers Keeper. After the opening quarter of an hour the game calmed down into a midfield battle, with both teams cancelling one another out, and the few shots that were made tended to be from distance. Both sides were struggling to make the midfield's dominance of the game pay - with the ball tending to just go from one side to another like a game of tennis.

Northampton broke the deadlock on 29 minutes, with Joe Benjamin scoring the opener to put the Diamonds on the back foot. This forced the whites onto the offensive, with Wigglesworth yellow carded moments after the goal for strongly challenging Walker in the air as the Diamonds looked for the equaliser. That equaliser did come in the 36^th minute, Shariff working well down the right, laying it back to Evans whose cross was perfectly on the head of John Wigglesworth, finding the top corner and beating the keeper to make it 1-1.

Rushden dominated the end of the first half, with Shariff's pressure nearly forcing an own goal, where Ross Oulton's back pass proved slightly stronger than the Cobblers keeper had expected, forcing him into an on the line save that he wasn't expecting.

When asked about the first half Paul Driver, Head of Youth at R&DFC said "First half we started brightly, had a good couple of chances early on but we've switched off and the fellow Benjamin, that we knew would be the danger man, we haven't dealt with him, he's got too much space and he's finished it. But we've come back well, Wiggy finished his goal well, we looked better from crosses, when we do that (get the ball out wide and cross it in) we score goals and that's where his goal came from, we felt at half time that we were the better side and we were on top."

Half Time: R&DFC Youth 1 - 1 Northampton Town Youth

Despite their dominance in the latter period of the first half Rushden clearly were not first out of the blocks for the second, Shawn Richards scored for Northampton on the 46^th minute, in their first attack of the half, neatly volleying in a cross with the inside of his boot.

This proved the wake up call for Rushden, who threw everything at Northampton for the remainder of the game, from the centre a move was made forward to Shariff, his shot from close range going agonisingly inches wide of the keeper's right hand post, prompting much of the crowd into premature celebration as it rippled the outside of the net.

Rushden made two tactical substitutions on the 66^th and 79^th minutes, Aynsley McDonald and Adam Sharpe coming on for Alex Phillips and Matthew Evans respectively to make the Diamonds a 3-4-3 as they chased the game. Higgins was carded in the 76^th minute as Rushden tried, but couldn't break down a strong Northampton side. The Cobblers remained particularly dangerous, especially as Rushden started to look more open at the back as they pushed forward. Joe Benjamin's pace and quality shone through as the Cobblers star man going forwards and he really changed the game for them.

In the 90^th minute Freshwater received a yellow card for appealing to the referee about a strong Northampton challenge, and moments later Jack Higgins was on the receiving end of another of those strong challenges - limping off injured to be replaced by Connor Hayes.

Head of Youth Paul Driver said about the second half "We knew they would get a bit of a rasping at half time, which they clearly did, and they've come out brightest and we've switched off. The fellow has got in at the back post within a minute of coming back and we're chasing the game. Overall you'd argue that we were the better side, we've had more chances but we haven't taken it, in the end it's the boy Benjamin for them that's the difference between the two sides, that's what we knew and I thought we didn't deal with him at the right times. So we're all disappointed, we went for it at the end with three up top, three at the back but again the few half chances we got we didn't take and the delivery wasn't as good when there were three men in the middle".

Full Time: R&DFC Youth 1 - 2 Northampton Town Youth

Overall Paul commented that "We were disappointed because I feel we should have got a win out of it, at the minimum we should have sent it to extra time, maybe even a win. But that's that, we have to deal with that and have to bounce back, we've got QPR in the League on Saturday, we're going well in the League and we've got to bounce back and get three points there.

We're all disappointed, second year scholars especially because this will be the last chance for them but as I've said on a number of occasions the majority of my squad is first year scholars, they'll be back again, and we'll be back again stronger next year.

We've met the target that we had, which was to make the first round proper this year, next year I'll be expecting to make the third round proper for definite. With boys like the McDonalds, Coxs, Shariffs, Hallfords and Sharpes we'll be looking to make the third round next year"

Rushden Team: 1 Michael Emery, 2 Matthew Evans (16 Adam Sharpe 79), 3 George Cox, 4 Alex Phillips (15 Aynsley McDonald 66), 5 Sean Calcutt, 6 Jack Higgins (Captain) (14 Connor Hayes 90), 7 Lewis Hallford, 8 Lewis Hilliard, 9 John Wigglesworth, 10 Nabil Shariff, 11 James Freshwater

Subs not used: 20 James Broadbent, 12 Daniel Easlea

Northampton Team: 1 Paul Walker, 2 Tom Gernon, 3 Kieran Mahon, 4 Ross Oulton (Captain), 5 Jon Marzetti, 6 Luke Cray, 7 Shawn Richards, 8 Thomas McBride (15 Alex Konstantinou), 9 Joe Benjamin, 10 Tom McGowan, 11 Michael Jacobs

Subs: 12 Oddyseas Economides, 13 Anthony O'Connor, 14 Josh Urquhart, 16 Liam Ruddick

R&DFC Man of the Match as chosen by our match sponsors AT Transport Solutions and KJW Drylining - Lewis Hilliard - for a commanding central midfield performance.

In other FA Youth Cup news - FootballCV Reds lost 2-0 away from home to Solihull Moors