AKIN HAT-TRICK PUTS VALLEY BACK ON TRACK

An Akin Aladetoun hat-trick helped Rugby bounce back from their weekend's disappointments and register a well-deserved victory at the Dog and Duck Stadium on Monday evening.

Valley boss Billy Jeffrey welcomed back three familiar faces to his line-up, with starting places for Aaron Stringfellow and David Staff, and a second half appearance from the bench for Matt Gearing.

Coventry University student Aladetoun proved to be a constant handful for an experienced Wellingborough side - which included three recent ex-Rugby players Matt Green, Tim Wooding and Scott Goodwin.

His opening goal came on 18 minutes when he seized upon an excellent through ball from David Stone to slide the ball past the left-hand side of the Doughboys' keeper John Hughes.

He increased his personal and his team's tally shortly after half-time with a first-time finish from the edge of the box after good work down the wing from Staff, and rounded off his treble when he forced the ball home from close range, after Staff's well-struck effort had bounced back off the underside of the crossbar on 71 minutes.

Hughes had already denied Aladetoun on a number of other occasions prior to the completion of his hat-trick, and Stone only just failed to get deserved reward for a fine individual performance when his effort also struck the bar in the second half.

The only blot on the Valley copybook came between Aladetoun's second and third, when Richard Thompson capitalised on a Farhad Afandiyev fumble to poke home from close range.

Generally though it was a comfortable performance from Rugby's back-line with Delroy Gordon and Brad Harris impressing at the heart of the defence.

Rugby starting line-up : Afandiyev, Stringfellow, McGrath, Harris, Gordon, Breward, Smith, Francis, Aladetoun, Stone, Staff. Subs : Gearing, Edge, Kolodynski, Skubala, Young, Kabongo.

Valley Lineup: Faz Afandiyev, Aaron Stringfellow, Brad Harris, Delroy Gordon, Stefan McGrath, Fabien Smith, Willis Francis, Tom Breward, Akin Aladetoun, David Stone, David Staff. Substitutes used: Matt Gearing, Mark Edge, David Kolodynski, Michael Skubala, Joel Young, Tristan Kabongo. Bookings: None. Sent Off: None.

Report by Jon Venner.