Rugby
Town 0-6 Nuneaton Borough
Southern
League Premier Division
Saturday,
29th July 2006
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Photo
Gallery
| Danny Hall takes up possession during the second
half
Conference
North Nuneaton underlined the gulf between the
two teams with a comfortable victory against a
Valley side playing only its second game of the
pre-season campaign.
Whilst
the result never looked in doubt, a spell of Rugby
resurgence midway through the second half, which
saw them strike the woodwork twice in close succession,
could have easily reduced what was a four goal
deficit at the time. Two late Borough goals however
further punished Town and in doing so made the
final scoreline somewhat unpleasant reading.
After
the disappointment of missing out on promotion
in the play-offs for the second successive year,
Borough boss Roger Ashby has strengthened his
squad in the close season. New signings left-back
Ben Chapman, midfielder Ollie Burgess and striker
Gary McPhee all confirmed that they are good acquisitions,
and the team's strong all-round performance is
surely a prelude to another season near the top
of their division.
For
Rugby, manager Billy Jeffrey is clearly still
searching for the final few pieces of his team
jigsaw, with triallists Mike
Feely, Matt Gearing
and Craig Kelly all
starting the game, and new signings Ross
Harris and Jason
Taylor making their first appearances at
Butlin Road.
Valley
looked hesitant in defence from the start, and
after early missed chances from Matty Collins
and Burgess, Borough took the lead on 11 minutes
when Burgess stroked the ball home after Town
had failed to clear a corner.
Burgess
could have extended the lead shortly after when
his header went just over the bar, and then McPhee's
lob from distance almost embarrassed Farhad Afandiyev
in the Rugby goal. On 34 minutes Burgess finally
grabbed his second, when he latched onto a defensive
error from Harris and applied a simple finish.
Rugby's
best chance of the half saw David Stone unable
to apply a decent header to a well-delivered Feely
cross from the right wing.
Nuneaton
killed the game off in a five minute spell after
the half-time break, when strike pairing McPhee
and Gez Murphy combined to grab a couple of well-worked
goals.
First
McPhee's clever head back found Murphy in space
on the edge of the penalty area, and the ex-Valley
player then executed a perfect volley into the
roof of the net. Shortly after Murphy returned
the favour to his partner when he released McPhee
in the box, who slid the ball past Afandiyev to
make it 4-0.
Rugby
then created a number of chances with Stone's
shot well-saved by the legs of Dave Clarke, Ryan
Byrne's free-kick from the edge of the box cannoning
off the crossbar, another Stone effort touched
over by Clarke and Gearing's curler from the left
hand side looked goalbound, but just clipped the
upright instead.
Borough
ended the game stronger however, and on 72 minutes
Chris Tullin's goal-line clearance prevented substitute
Duane Darby from increasing his side's tally.
Fellow substitute Martin Reeves achieved this
minutes later with a fine individual effort, when
he blazed into the box rounded Afandiyev and then
cut back again before applying a majestic finish
into the top corner of the goal.
David
Blenkinsopp made it six on 83 minutes with a close
range finish, and the final chance of the game
fell to Rugby, but Taylor was unable to provide
the finishing touch against his old club, after
Matt Wells had turned and shot well from the edge
of the box.
Rugby:
Afandiyev, Tullin, Harris, Feely, Herbert, Hall,
Gearing (Orford), Francis (Byrne), Stone, Taylor,
Kelly (Wells). Subs not used : Orford, Crockett,
Lynn
Nuneaton:
Clarke, Oddy (Wilkin), Chapman, Collins (Reeves),
Moore, Brown, Burgess (Richards), Noon (Fitzpatrick),
McPhee (Darby), Murphy (Blenkinsopp), Staff (Miller). |
