United bowed out of the LDV Vans Trophy tonight, going down 1-0 to Rushden & Diamonds at the KasStad. The goal came from a penalty conceded by Jon Ashton, who needlessly brought down Rodney Jack after the Rushden striker had outpaced Ashton and Crosby. The spot-kick was converted by Stuart Gray in the 36th minute. Although the tackle from which the penalty was awarded looked fair, Ashton can have no real complaints as he appeared to handle the ball seconds earlier, and it was a rash tackle as Jack was headed away from goal. Still, at the time the Diamonds deserved their lead which in the first half never looked under threat. In the second period United were a much more attacking outfit and Paul Evans had to be alert to save from both Jefferson Louis and Danny Brown, in addition to making a more routine stop from Derek Townsley.

Ian Atkins made several changes from the team that played Yeovil last Saturday. The defence was pretty much his first choice, with the only change being Andy Crosby coming in for Paul McCarthy. Goalkeeper Simon Cox was on the bench but never came on. The whole midfield was different as Paul Wanless and Dean Whitehead dropped to the bench and Derek Townsley, Dave Waterman and Danny Brown made up the trio. Up front Chris Hackett started alongside Louis. At half-time Manny Omoyinmi replaced Matt Bound and United changed to a 4-3-3 formation, leading to a much more lively approach. The one major disappointment was that Jamie Brooks remained on the bench and wasn’t brought on for his promised appearance, Atkins presumably thinking that the game was too competitive to risk him.

Referee Lee Probert had a fairly harmless game, although it was disappointing to see yellow cards awarded to Crosby and Hackett for fairly innocuous challenges in such a meaningless competition. The attendance was 2,510 which, given the circumstances, was perfectly reasonable and set a nice new record for the lowest attendance for a competitive game at the KasStad.

In other vaguely interesting news former United midfielder Matt Murphy today parted company with his new club Kings Lynn after he was substituted at half-time in their draw against Rothwell Town yesterday. It is likely that this was due to a “difference of opinion” with Lynn’s manager Peter Morris in a situation that has amazing similarities with Murphy’s departure from Kettering Town, where he was unable to “get his head around” being a substitute against Hayes. Murphy was on a week-by-week contract at Kings Lynn.

Elsewhere Chester City have accepted a ?15,000 bid from Kidderminster for defender Wayne Hatswell, who hasn’t appeared for the club since it was alleged that manager Mark Wright had an affair with Hatswell’s partner. Apparently Chester turned down a bid worth about ?10,000 more than Kiddy’s from Shrewsbury Town, but didn’t want to sell Hatswell to one of their Conference rivals.