Yesterdays filming of my weekly Non League vlog took me to Hayden Road, to watch AFC Rushden and Diamonds, for their home match v Lye Town F.C.
Now, I could spend ages writing about how fantastically Diamonds, and everyone connected with them, treated me yesterday... Put it this way, I was chatting to so many people, at time’s, I completely forgot the purpose of the visit was to film and give R&D, and Lye Town some exposure!
To say they were friendly and welcoming is an understatement, but, for this post, I want to tell you about a Frenchman at the Diamonds and how it came about…
Rob Usher, the R&D chairman (pictured left) told me the below…
R&D recently received an order for a home shirt from a small town in France on the Swiss border.
Intrigued by this unusual request destination, Rob had to find out more, so he contacted the buyer as to why they were ordering a shirt from a Non League team from England ???
Manu, the buyer replied that, for no particular reason, he started playing the computer game, Championship manager as R&D, and started to do quite well… so well in fact that he started to follow the real teams results from far away!
When Rob heard this, he invited Manu and a couple of his mates over for a game…and yesterday was the day.
Manu even presented Rob with a shirt from his team, Annancy.
As I was chatting to them after the match, Rob was tongue in cheek exploring the possibility of a friendly in the mountains! 😂
Manu told me that he and his mates had a brilliant time at the match, meeting players, and basically, feeling like VIP’s… I actually felt the same too!
So, yet another story about why I love Non League, and the way they treat people. It’s also encouraging that the reach out there is bigger than I thought. Absolutely brilliant.
So… if you are still reading and want to see how the match turned out, as always, here is the Vlog below.
Big thank you to Darren Ashley yet again for sharing his latest Non-League adventure with us and another great Vlog that gives an insight into football at the lower levels.
Please make sure to subscribe and follow Darren's YouTube Channel as well!