Match: v Rushden & Diamonds - Blue Square Premier

Date: Tuesday, April 8th, 2008

Result: Rushden 1 Cambridge United 2

THE JOURNEY

Departure Time: 4.30pm

Arrival at Ground: The departure time was early enough for the A14 to be at that 'still moving even when lorries pull out to overtake each other slowly' stage, which comes a couple of stages before the 'abandon hope all ye who enter here' stage that comes once rush hour sets in.

In fact we were so early that the local constabulary's reception committee for the travelling United fans was only just beginning to muster at strategic roundabouts along the route.

The ground is in an edge of town complex and surrounded by car parks, some of which are paved in the herringbone fashion of a suburban housing estate. That suburban theme was continued around the complex with the plethora of signposts to help you on your way to the various corporate and spectator areas.

We parked behind the away end at about 5.20pm, having paid £3 for the privilege.

AT THE GROUND

The Ground: There is an assortment of reception areas and corporate buildings tucked into odd alcoves around the ground, but the majority of the stadium building is in two stages. The lower section is of brick in which are numerous dark blue doors, each of which bears an elongated red diamond motif, while the upper section has a white panel effect. This is particularly noticeable outside the away end where banners are hung between the top of each section, each carrying a slightly different 'clip art' style figure of a footballer. If you were able to put them all together and flick quickly through the images, it would probably look as though the 'player' was moving.

Once inside the ground, it becomes clear that the away end is of a slightly more imposing design than the rest of the stadium. Higher than the other three sides, a gently curving roof covers a large area of seats that, on the day of our visit, had a couple of blocks closed off for segregation purposes at one end.

To the left and right of the away end, lower stands of covered seats have their first row raised sufficiently above pitch level to afford an excellent view throughout. With glass-fronted corporate entertaining rooms at the back, these stands virtually mirror each other and are housed beneath by the same flat roof that also covers the only area of terracing in the ground, found behind the goal facing the away end. Concrete Owls 'perch' at regularly intervals along this roof although, being concrete, they are useless at delivering post, but not bad as birdscarers ? which is handy, as that's just what they are there for. As a result, in contrast to Droylsden's pigeon problem, the ground seemed devoid of avian visitors, although I did hear a Barn Owl from the car park after the match.

The glass display window of the club shop is prominent in one corner between terrace and stand while, at the other end of the terrace, a radio station-style studio - 'Radio Diamonds' in fact - is beneath a broken scoreboard and between a pair of double-decker portacabins.

United Fans: It may be the second or third shortest journey of the season, but for the away fans to come within half a dozen of representing half the total attendance is quite exceptional. And then there's the noise they generated. The constant, loud support throughout was enough to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end.

There seemed to be rather more United fans than Rushden were expecting and ten minutes before kick-off there were still only two turnstiles open for visiting supporters.

View from Away End: With no pillars anywhere in the ground, the view was excellent throughout, unless you happened to find yourself behind a burly steward.

Home Fans: Rushden fans were only heard a couple of times and only briefly on both occasions - at the start of the second half and after their goal. Other than that, they were sung into submission by United's phenomenal support.

Police/Stewards: From the number of stewards and police on duty in and around the ground, they seemed to be expecting problems. However, I didn't see any inside the ground.

Although the stewards weren't prepared to put up with any naughtiness, they took the sensible approach of taking perpetrators into the concourse under the stand for a first and final warning before allowing them to return to the stand.

Tannoy: Of course a fully enclosed stadium is always going to amplify the public address system to a slightly uncomfortable level, but this was counteracted to a degree by the announcer who, mindful that the scoreboard wasn't working, gave frequent updates of scores elsewhere. Unfortunately, as his style of delivery was uncannily like that of 'Death' in Terry Pratchett's series of 'Discworld' novels, you were never sure whether Kidderminster had scored another goal at Halifax or the world was about to come to an end... which, come to think of it, might have felt fairly similar to home fans at the Shay.

Programme: £2.50 for 52 pages. One of the better programmes in the Conference, there was plenty to read and lots of photos - although none of United players in the small section on the visitors.

Food/Drink: Food and drink ran out quickly in the away end, which may not have entirely been a bad thing. The 'Diamond Burger' which, disappointingly wasn't actually shaped like a diamond, cost £3. With two big slabs of meat, bacon and cheese, it looked fantastic (apparently) but tasted the opposite... and had an aftertaste that lingered long into the journey home. Chips, at £1.50, were tasty enough though, but came in such a small portion they should have been served with a magnifying glass.

AFTERWARDS

The Journey Home: Even the many lane closures that turned sections of the A14 into a chicane couldn't put the dampener on a happy drive home.

Mileage: 89.1 miles

Total Distance for Season: 5,886.2 miles

Mark Johnson, with additional reporting by David Gray.

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