Rushden & Diamonds Youth Team lost 1-0 to Newcastle MMU in the Football Conference Youth Alliance League Cup Semi Final on Wednesday

Paul Driver, Head of Youth at Rushden & Diamonds commented on the loss. "We were very below par in an important cup game, we can't seem to replicate our League form in these important cup games against teams which, no disrespect to Newcastle, we should be beating.

Hats off to Newcastle, and good luck to them in the final, they took their chance and defended excellently - they thoroughly deserved the win.

I'm very disappointed with our mental strength and application on big games, with the exception of Matt Evans who was excellent and James Broadbent and Nabil Shariff who had reasonable games, we were well short of our capability, you can't win semi finals with eight of your players having below par performances.

Photos by www.snapimages.co.uk