It was not
to be Rugby Town’s day for a second consecutive year
at Meadow
Park as
Rugby went down 5-2 to Gloucester City after conceding
four first
half goals.
In an action-packed
opening ten minutes, the momentum of the game swung
back
and forth and
three early goals opened the game right up.
The home side
were first to strike after just three minutes with Tom
Webb
finishing well
inside the area, but Rugby were level within four minutes
when a goal-mouth
scramble ended with Rory Squire netting his third goal
of
the season
from close range.
But the Town
celebrations were certainly short-lived as two minutes
later,
veteran left-sided
player Adie Harris cut through the Rugby defence before
dispatching
a curling effort from outside the area which dipped
under the
crossbar and
evaded goalkeeper Stevie Wilson.
After this
goal, the visitors appeared to fall apart and the Tigers
missed a
whole host
of chances, but they extended their lead when striker
Lee Davis
was apparently
pulled back in the box by Rob Gould and captain Neil
Mustoe
easily sent
Wilson the wrong way.
The home side
still had time to rip open the Valley defence once more
before
half time as
Keith Knight caused problems down the right-hand side
before
pulling the
ball back to Lee Davis who side-footed into an empty
net.
After the break,
Rugby striker David Stone seemed to get into the game
more
and he got
a goal back on fifty-two minutes with a superb individual
effort
sending the
ball in via both posts.
Jon Nichols
could have made it 4-3 when he was set-up by Stone but
his shot
was weakly
hit straight at goalkeeper Matt Bath.
However, Gloucester
killed the game off when Chris Thompson had time in
the
box to control
the ball and send the ball into an empty net after Wilson
had been exposed.
