Well matched Friendly edged by visitors.

AFC Rushden & Diamonds of the UCL League were the first visitors to Welby Rd this season bringing with them talented young players, some Ex Professional club Academy players along with seasoned ex pros such as Chris Hope who started his career as a trainee at Darlington before joining Nottingham Forest and Scunthorpe United where he played over 280 league games before joining Gillingham for £250,000.

Holwell fielded a strong line up with new signings Aaron Ridout and Tom Morgan featuring in midfield along side last season favourites Michael Stevenson and Jamie Kirkby up front.

Both teams started cagey with lots of good keep ball football with no real penetration, but the game nearly came to life on 15mins when Kirkby tried an audacious strike from the edge of the box which had the visitors keeper scampering to save his embarrasment - the shot just missing the right hand post.

Holwell were doing well in the first 20-30mins with good running off the ball and finding space testing the Diamonds defence in what was proving to be a well matched encounter. However holes started to appear in the Holwell defence and Rushden started to exploit the opportunities presented with Ben Morgan beginning to look good up front for the visitors. It was on 27 mins when Diamonds got their first real chance when No 8 broke through the defense at speed only to be thwared by Richard Cragg in goal for Holwell with a good save low down to his right.

A mistake by Holwell's Snelgrove on 34mins let in Ben Morgan to open the score for the visitors on 34mins and Holwell could have gone two down on 36mins when Devon Elwood was allowed to break in from the right with his shot striking the outside of the post when others were better placed.

Second half saw quite a few changes from both sides to give the squads a full run out and the match effectively started again but still Holwell were holding their own trying to break down the visitors defense.

Holwell had gone to a straight 4 4 2 formation playing Bitmead up alongside Jay Kirkby and Chris Hibbitt introduced to the midfield.

However it was on the hour when Rushden made their second break through when Devon Elwood struck to put the visitors 2-0 up.

Both managers gave all 17 in each squad a run out and the game fizzled out to a training excersise towards the end with Holwell not really making many chances and five minutes from the end Elliott Dent finished the game off with a strike inside the 18 yard box taking a deflection off a Holwell defender beating Cragg low down to his left.

Both managers were happy with the good run out given to the squads with positives on both sides.