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Story of a Season – 2000-2001 – When Rushden & Diamonds sparkled to complete Max Griggs’ dream

Chris Dunlavy revisits the 2000-01 Conference season, when big-spending Rushden & Diamonds finally secured Football League promotion under owner Max Griggs.
Rushden & Diamonds celebrate winning promotion to the Football League for the first time

By the turn of the Millennium, Rushden & Diamonds had it all. An ambitious millionaire owner in Max Griggs. A stadium that wouldn’t have looked out of place in the Championship. A star-laden squad. The only thing missing was promotion to the Football League.

Eight years earlier, the respective chairmen of Rushden Town and Irthlingborough Diamonds had persuaded Griggs that a merger of two amateur clubs in the middle of nowhere could create a Non-League powerhouse.
Griggs, a quiet family man with no interest in yachts or supercars, reasoned there was nothing better to spend his money on.
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