VALLEY FIGHTBACK SHATTERS HATTERS

Tom Breward (centre) celebrates his spectacular winner with Mark Edge (left) and triallist Robert Gondwe.

For the second successive warm-up game, Rugby overturned a two goal deficit with a three goal second half response.

However, unlike the previous match at Bedworth when they then let their lead slip, this time they held on to round off a generally promising performance - as football returned to Butlin Road after a three month break.

A youthful Luton side - marshalled by experienced keeper Marlon Beresford - had threatened to take the game away from Town in the lead-up to half time, after Mark Farthing had chipped one over a static Farhad Afandiyev on 22 minutes. They then stretched the advantage just after the interval when Elliott Osbourne-Ricketts sent a screamer out of the reach of Afandiyev's replacement Alex Bacherini.

Valley's play thereafter was much more encouraging however, and the introduction of Mark Edge on 49 minutes brought an immediate response, with the young midfielder flicking his back header over the top of the advancing Beresford with his first touch of the game.

Akin Aladetoun's pacy run through the middle of the Hatters' defence and equally impressive chipped finish over Beresford brought the scores level, and then Tom Breward's audacious 45 yard effort fifteen minutes from time gave the home side a morale boosting victory.

Manager Billy Jeffrey had handed another start at right-back to youth team player of the year Brad Harris, with Stefan Morley given a further chance to impress on the opposite flank. There was also a return to action for Willis Francis, and a rare start in a Valley shirt for Fabien Smith, who had been a fringe player at the club for a large part of 2006-07.

With little training behind him, Francis struggled to influence the game from the heart of midfield though, and it was clearly the introduction of the energetic Edge as his replacement that provided the catalyst for the Valley recovery.

In the game's first quarter of an hour especially, Smith had provided some threat to the Luton defence down the left wing, and with David Stone also appearing to have the beating of his markers, Rugby had the better of the opening exchanges.

However once Aladetoun had screwed his header wide of the post on 12 minutes, the full-time professionals and academy starlets from Kenilworth Road took control, and their best player Ryan Charles had two glorious chances before half-time to add to Farthing's clever finish.

Zambian Under-23 international Robert Gondwe - on for the tiring Smith - showed some good touches in the second period, and was also instrumental in the build-up to Breward's winner.

After being forced to pick Osbourne-Ricketts' rocket out of the net as his first involvement in the game, Bacherini had little opportunity to subsequently prove himself between sticks, although the triallist keeper – once on the books at Notts County and who has recently returned to the country after a spell in the U.S. - did appear to get a deflecting hand to a rasping drive from Joel Grant in the 80th minute.

Valley Lineup: Faz Afandiyev (Alex Bacherini), Brad Harris (Boakya Agyeman), Stefan Morley, Andy Commander, Delroy Gordon, Tom Breward, David Kolodynski (Stefan McGrath), Willis Francis (Mark Edge), Tom Breward, Akin Aladetoun, David Stone (Tristan Kabongo), Fabien Smith (Robert Gondwe). Bookings: None. Sent Off: None.

Report by Jon Venner.