Second half goals from Jenson Cooper and Luis Pinto-Leite sealed the deal for the home side who gave a spirited display, despite their relegation being mathematically confirmed last weekend.

United almost took the lead early in the most audacious of circumstances, with Ollie Clark trying to lob the Diamonds goalkeeper, but Dean Snedker just managed to get a hand to it and Rev James' follow-up was flagged for offside.

Diamonds had their first real chance shortly after the 15-minute mark, but Bogdan Marian’s effort from distance was dealt with comfortably by Kieran Preston.

After some wonderful fluid movement, Basford had their best chance of the half. Josh Barnes failed to trouble the keeper with a decent chance after Rev James danced through the defence and played the ball across the area for the onrushing fullback.

Moments later, the home side probably should have taken the lead, with a mad goalmouth scramble seeing the ball go everywhere but the back of the net as the Ambers defence stood strong before eventually clearing.

Skipper Matt Thornhill had a couple of cracks at the whip half an hour in; bursting through the Rushden defence, with the first shot being blocked back into his path, before a second scuffed into the hands of Snedker.

Both sides played with freedom going forward and conjured up plenty of chances in the first half, with Rushden going close next after Fraser Corden tried his luck from the outskirts of the Basford area, but his effort sliced over the bar.

United looked like they’d scored right at the death of the half, after a corner was floated into the box and Clark’s header looked destined for the top corner, but it was remarkably cleared off the line by a unbeknownst Diamonds defender and the two sides went into the half level.

The home side wasted no time breaking the deadlock after the restart, though, and after a defence splitting pass was threaded through to Cooper and he beat Preston to the ball to pass it into an empty goal to make it 1-0.

United had several forays forward in the aftermath, but never really came close to levelling things and Rushden killed the game off with less than ten minutes to go after substitute Pinto-Leite fired one beyond the unsighted Preston on the half volley to round off the win.

Next up, we travel to Bedford Town on Saturday (3pm).

UNITED: Preston; Roma, Beatson, McGowan, Barnes; Thornhill (c), Clark (Grantham 64'), Dunn, Da Silva Bastos; Dwyer, James
SUBS (not used): Peters, Irvine, Carr, Musson (gk)

ATT: 258 [17 away]