Boss Sandy demands Diamonds rally after poor week with still 'plenty to play for'

Diamonds are back on the road on Saturday when they travel to relegation-threatened Loughborough Students, and they will be looking to get back to winning ways after Tuesday night's 1-1 home draw with another struggling side, St Neots Town.

That game came off the back of Saturday's 3-1 loss to Boldmere St Michael's at Hayden Road, and those results meant Diamonds missed the chance to leapfrog county rivals Wellingborough Town and go level on points with fifth-placed Coleshill Town.

As it is, Diamonds remain seventh, five points off the play-off places with a game in hand, and with matches games to play, Sandy insists there is 'still plenty to play for'.

Speaking to @AFCRD after Tuesday's draw, the Diamonds boss said: "There is a lot to work on, a lot to look at, but the group still have a lot of belief, and we now need to pick ourselves up and go again.

"Every game in this league is really tough, and there are no gimmes because there is not a lot between the team in second and the team bottom of the league.

"Teams are absolutely fighting tooth and nail for everything, and we have to learn from what happened Tuesday.

"If you had said to me at the start of the season that with eight games to go we would be seventh in the league and five points off the play-offs with a game in hand, I would have snatched your hand off.

"So we are in a great position, and you have to remember where we are compared to where we have come from.

"We are going to give it everything we have got, and then we will see where we finish up. There is still plenty to play for."

Loughborough are second bottom in the Midlands Division and three points from safety.

They are without a win in six matches, and last Saturday suffered a 3-2 loss at St Neots.

Diamonds will be without goalkeeper Dan Jezeph and midfielder Joel Nketia for Saturday's encounter, with both serving suspensions following their red cards in the defeat to Boldmere.