Team are 'brothers for life' despite relegation

The manager of AFC Rushden & Diamonds said his players were "brothers for life" after they were narrowly relegated.

The Northamptonshire side, managed by Micahel Harriman, were one of four teams to be tied on 32 points at the end of the Northern Premier League Division One Midlands season.

Results elsewhere on Saturday meant the Diamonds were relegated due to their inferior goal difference - three goals worse off than Rugby Town.

However, the club could yet be reprieved from the drop after Loughborough Dynamo applied for voluntary relegation.

Loughborough, who finished sixth, said in a statement that it had "decided to take a step back to grassroots football".

AFC Rushden and Diamonds said it had contacted the Northern Premier League "to discuss the permutations" of Loughborough's withdrawal.

The BBC has also contacted the league for comment.

The development came after Diamonds beat 11th-placed Walsall Wood 2-0 in their final game of the season, but it was not enough to keep them up.

It followed a remarkable surge towards safety, with the team having only recorded one league win between August and January.

But despite winning eight games since, their impressive efforts were not enough and the outfit were relegated after placing 19th.

"It hurts and it will hurt for a few days," Harriman, a former Northampton Town defender, told his current club's YouTube channel.

"Ultimately now it's where we pick this club back up and move forward.

"We just weren't good enough for large parts of the season."

He added that "brothers for life" had been made in the squad through their attempted heroics.

"They've been so tight, we've been tight as a group and it's disappointing because we're all winners," Harriman said.

"We all want to do the best we can and unfortunately today it just wasn't our day."

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