UCL Review 2012-13_9a2d718c

DIVISION ONE: SILEBY PIP DIAMONDS

The Division One season was one of the most exciting on record, with a fascinating four horse race for the title and promotion going to the closing days of the campaign.

New clubs AFC Rushden & Diamonds and Oadby were in the thick of the race along with Sileby and Eynesbury who had strengthened greatly over the summer.

Oadby’s debut in the league brought them an eye catching 8-0 win over Potton and they set the pace through most of the autumn, going eight matches unbeaten until fellow newcomers Harrowby won at Freeways Park on the final Saturday of October. The same day saw AFC Rushden & Diamonds suffer their first Division One reverse at Eynesbury who were also going well. Sileby, with several of the previous season’s Premier winning Long Buckby squad on board, put together a fourteen match winning run between October and February, the sequence including a victory at Oadby who kept their own challenge on course with 13 wins in 14 games between November and March. Highlight of the Poachers’ run was a 5-1 demolition of Diamonds on the opening Saturday of 2013.

Diamonds responded to that Freeways Park thumping with eleven consecutive wins, including a single goal success at Sileby at the end of February.

Eynesbury had also kicked off the new year with a defeat at Bugbrooke, but plundered forty points from the next fourteen games.

The closing weeks of the season saw plenty of meetings between the top four, and on Easter Saturday Diamonds and Oadby shared four goals at the Dog & Duck, handing Sileby the initiative until they suffered a derby reverse at Northampton Spencer two days later. Another slip by Sileby at Eynesbury on 6 th April enabled Diamonds to go top, but at this stage Oadby seemed favourites with games in hand over their rivals. Suddenly the wheels came off for the Poachers with successive draws against Northampton Spencer, Eynesbury and Bugbrooke and a defeat at Rushden & Higham in the space of ten days!

On April 23 rd AFC Rushden & Diamonds took a big step towards promotion by drawing 2-2 at home to Eynesbury, but Sileby’s win over Thrapston the same evening left them in the driving seat.

On the following Saturday Eynesbury dropped further points in a stalemate at Harrowby, and Sileby secured a top two finish with a 2-0 success at Rushden & Higham on 30 th April. Diamonds took a big step towards promotion with a 4-1 derby defeat of Whitworth the same night. It was celebration time for Diamonds on 4 th May as a 3-0 success at Northampton Spencer clinched their promotion at the first attempt in front of over 800 spectators. Sileby needed a point in their last match at Whitworth three days later to clinch the crown and duly ran out 3-1 winners with Steve Blackwood scoring twice. At the wrong end of the table Burton Park finished adrift despite improving substantially in the last couple of months of the season. Only one win in the first nineteen games proved too big a deficit to make up. Buckingham spent much of the season in the bottom two but eased clear after losing just once in their last six matches, with Wootton slipping down after failing to win in their final six outings as a UCL club.

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