Valley had not won a third round tie in the League Cup since the 1989/90 season – which was also the last time that the Butlin Road side lifted the trophy after a win in the final against Dartford.

Rugby had thought they had done enough to win the game in normal time when substitute Andy Commander netted with fifteen minutes remaining but Halesowen forced extra time when Ian Cooper fired in a last-gasp equaliser.

Manager Billy Jeffrey named an unchanged line-up for the fifth consecutive game and both sides started slowly. It wasn’t until the seventh minute that there was any threat to either goal when Halesowen’s Alex Cowley had a free run at goal but he fired wide from eight yards.

At the other end, Stone made a speedy breakaway and got beyond the visiting defence, but he stalled and allowed Stuart Pierpoint to get back and make the crucial intervention.

Aaron Stringfellow made an excellent tackle to deny Simon Forsdick while Nick Preston made a similarly good intervention for Halesowen to block Craig Herbert’s effort.

It wasn’t until towards the end of the first half that Rugby began to find some rhythm and a flowing move between Matt Gearing, Jason Taylor and Stone resulted in a chance for Ross Harris, but the full-back could only poke the ball wide.

The second half started slowly as per the first half but defender Delroy Gordon had to be on hand to clear the danger from Forsdick’s low cross on the hour mark and shortly afterwards Danny Hall had to be alert to divert the ball away from the goal after Sean Dowdall’s run and cross.

Cowley saw his low shot deflected wide of the post before Valley goalkeeper Farhad Afandiyev raced off his line to block at the feet of Halesowen substitute Nick Amos..

The breakthrough came on 75 minutes when Danny Hall’s looped cross was dreadfully dealt with by Yeltz goalkeeper Dan Woodhall, whose punch backwards found Andy Commander who poked the ball into the empty net.

Valley should have extended their lead four minutes later after good work by Gearing and Taylor with the latter feeding Stone who turned well in the box and sent in a curling shot which cannoned back off the angle and away.

Two more chances should have killed the game off when Stone broke the offside trap and delivered an awkward cross for Taylor who could only loop the ball up and over the bar before Gearing made a surging run but his shot under pressure from eight yards was well saved by Woodhall.

Then, out of the blue, Halesowen equalised with the last kick of normal time as Ian Cooper sent in a crashing 30-yard strike to leave Afandiyev with no chance.

This sent the game into extra time and the chances started coming in waves for both teams with a field of tired legs.

Firstly, Halesowen’s Forsdick broke clear of Commander after veteran Chris Brindley’s knockdown but fired over from ten yards.

Rugby substitute Fabien Smith showed a few encouraging touches, the best of which came when he manoeuvred past two defenders but saw his low effort easily saved.

The visitors thought they had a certain penalty with ten minutes of extra time played when James Francis was bundled down in the box by Ross Harris but the referee waved away the protests and Chris Tullin was on hand to clear the ball away.

Commander made a fantastic intervention to prevent James Francis with a shooting opportunity while Taylor was unlucky not to score with a powerful header from Stone’s centre.

The second period of extra time saw more tired legs and more mistakes but Afandiyev made no mistake as he saved brilliantly from Forsdick at point blank range.

Stringfellow was disappointed to see his header go wide of the goal from Taylor’s cross before Valley got the all-important winner.

David Stone broke in from the left hand side and sent in a decent effort towards goal, but to everyone’s surprise, Woodhall allowed the ball to squirm under his body and into the net.