Poor defending to blame as Diamonds' run is ended

Kidsgrove Athletic score their first goal as AFC Rushden & Diamonds suffered a 5-2 home defeat. Pictures by Alison Bagley

Diamonds looked to be on course to extend that run to 20 games when goals from Sam Brown and Fazel Koriya put them 2-0 up inside 19 minutes against Kidsgrove Athletic at the Dog & Duck.

But once the visitors had pulled a goal back, they didn’t look back and went on to record a 5-2 victory as Diamonds’ unbeaten streak was ended in emphatic fashion.

The loss also saw Peaks’ team drop out of the play-off places and the manager felt his side paid a heavy price for their defensive lapses.

Fazel Koriya celebrates after scoring his goal for Diamonds

“We just didn’t defend well to be fair,” the Diamonds manager said.

“They had two very good strikers who I knew would be dangerous and once we switched off defensively, we never really recovered from it.

“We started pretty well and I didn’t think we played too badly going forward throughout the whole game. We looked a bigger threat than we have done in a lot of home games.

“But every time they broke, they looked dangerous. Our strength has been our defending well in all areas and we didn’t do that this time.

“No matter who you are playing, if you defend like that then you will be punished.”

Peaks, however, insists there will be no panicking from him or his players.

They have the chance to bounce back and move back into the top five when they host Rugby Town on Tuesday night.

“I’ve never gone overboard when we have won a game and I certainly won’t be overreacting after a defeat,” Peaks added.

“We will look back at the game and study what went wrong. Mistakes were made and I will take the blame for what I did wrong. And collectively we will go and try to put it right.”