Valley host BGB Division One South & West opponents Thatcham Town for Rugby's final pre-season fixture.

	Date Saturday 11th August 2007 Kick-off 3pm Venue Butlin Road, Rugby Comp Pre-Season Friendly Combative midfielder Tom Breward will hope to recover from injury to face to Thatcham

Two friendly victories in the past week over Nuneaton Borough (2-1) and Ardley United (5-2) mean that it is just one defeat in seven games pre-season for Valley so far, and we will be hoping to round off the campaign with a win against their opponents from Berkshire.

The success against higher league Borough last Saturday was particularly encouraging and deserved, as Town's young side outfought and outplayed their local rivals for long periods - securing victory thanks to goals at the end of each half from the two Davids - Kolodynski and Staff.

Kolodynski was on-target again on Tuesday night at Ardley, with strike partner David Stone grabbing a couple, and Stefan Morley and Willis Francis also making the scoresheet.

Morley played despite leaving the field on Saturday with an aggravation to his shin injury, although other injured new signing Scott Musgrove failed to feature in either game, and is rated doubtful for this coming Saturday's fixture too.

Thatcham should provide a good test for Valley, having finished just one point and one place short of the play-offs last season, and joint managers Lee Tillen and John Goddard have tried to strengthen their squad in the summer in an attempt to gain promotion to the BGB Premier this time round for the first time in their 103 year history.

Tillen describes new striker signing Anthony Alleyne as a player with "genuine pace", and he should provide a good test for the ever-improving Brad Harris - who has been filling in at centre-half in the absence of Andy Commander (broken hand) and Craig Herbert (family bereavement).

Thatcham have had a mixed pre-season with wins against Woodford and Milton but on Tuesday they suffered a 5-0 home defeat to BGB One Midlands Division side Aylesbury United.

Rugby Town Squad From: Faz Afandiyev, Aaron Stringfellow, Brad Harris, Delroy Gordon, Craig Herbert, Stefan Morley, Stefan McGrath, Joel Young, Mark Edge, Matt Gearing, David Staff, Willis Francis, Tom Breward, Scott Musgrove, John Carrington, David Kolodynski, David Stone, Tristan Kabongo.