VALLEY ARDLEY TROUBLED IN LATEST FRIENDLY SUCCESS

Town recorded their fourth victory of the warm-up campaign with a comfortable 5-2 success over Ardley of the Hellenic Premier League.

The margin of victory could easily have been much greater, but in the end goals from David Kolodynski, David Stone (2), Stefan Morley and Willis Francis were more than enough to see off the Oxfordshire side - who play two levels below the Valley in the non-league pyramid.

With Brad Harris, Tom Breward and David Staff all unavailable from Saturday's opening line-up against Nuneaton, there were places in the starting eleven for Stefan McGrath, Mark Edge and ex-Rushden & Diamonds midfielder Daniel Grainger.

The first half of the game also saw Ardley's second choice keeper between the sticks for Rugby, with Faz Afandiyev preferring to rest his sore knee. Afandiyev however did take his place in goal for the second period.

Town took an early lead when Kolodynski was on the end of a poor defensive clearance from Francis's long ball forward. The young striker then finished the move off with a 30-yard effort past the floundering Ardley keeper.

Grainger then found Matt Gearing at the far post, whose crisply struck half volley was this time well kept-out, and Stone and Kolodynski had further chances as Town threatened to run riot.

A loss of concentration at the back however gifted United with an equaliser, with the home side taking advantage of Town's inability to clear their lines after a deep cross from the left.

A further chance fell to Stone in the lead-up to half-time, but he was unable to convert Kolodynski's by-line cross.

Stone made amends just five minutes into the second half with an excellent individual effort, beating a number of defenders before rolling the ball past the keeper. It was 3-1 shortly after when Morley curled one home from the edge of the box after Gearing's corner had only been part cleared by the Ardley defence.

Further sloppy Valley defending saw Ardley reduce the arrears once more on 65 minutes, with an unmarked United striker powering home a free header from close range.

Francis's vicious daisy cutter skimmed into the net from fully 30 yards to restore a two goal advantage on 74 minutes, and then Stone rounded off a fine individual performance with his second of the game, neatly nutmegging his marker in the process before sliding the ball home.

Delroy Gordon and Gearing had both hit the woodwork in Rugby's dominant second half, with Gearing particularly unfortunate not to gain reward for his long range strike.

Overall Valley's opponents were lacking the necessary quality to test them on the night, providing little chance to assess the strength of Rugby as a team or individually. The absent on holiday Billy Jeffrey will be hoping however that the defensive mistakes that kept the margin of victory to just three goals are eliminated in time for the start of the BGB Premier league season.

Rugby Line-Up : A.N.Other (Faz Afandiyev), Aaron Stringfellow, Stefan Morley, Stefan McGrath, Delroy Gordon, Mark Edge (Michael Skubala), Matt Gearing, Willis Francis, David Kolodynski, David Stone (Tristan Kabongo), Daniel Grainger (John Carrington).

Report by Jon Venner.