ANOTHER GOOD START WASTED

For the second time in three days, Town threw away an early lead to eventually go down easily to a well-drilled Leamington side in the Bank Holiday local derby at Butlin Road.

By Jon Venner.

Photo: Martin Pulley

Winger Matt Gearing makes an early run at Butlin Road as Rugby dominated the opening exchanges only to fall to another heavy defeat.

As at Tiverton on Saturday, Jason Ramsay snatched an opener within ten minutes - walking the ball into an empty net after Brakes keeper Chris Kiely had missed his attempted clearance.

Following the goal, Valley played some neat and incisive football, and Kiely made amends for his earlier error by tipping David Kolodynski's goalbound header just over the bar.

Another Kolodynski header then drifted the wrong side of the horizontal, and two further shots from him were driven straight at Kiely, as Rugby continued their good start to the game.

However when Craig Herbert hesitated and allowed Mark Bellingham to seize upon a ball in behind the Town defence, the game's stand-out player was quick to take advantage and applied an impressive finish past Stevens into the bottom corner.

The turning moment of the game came on 41 minutes, when Marcus Jackson smashed home an absolute beauty from more than thirty yards out to give Leamington a confidence boosting half time advantage.

As a result, the visitors turned the screw in the second period, and Town had Stevens - playing despite of an injured arm - to thank for keeping them in the game until ten minutes from time when Bellingham's second killed off any hope of an unlikely comeback.

Before that Stevens had twice produced fine reaction saves to deny Bellingham and also got down well with a low stop to Luke Corbett's effort.

Rugby had briefly rallied mid-way through the half, with Kolodynski's volley representing their best chance and Steve Purton twice failing to capitalise when he had been released down the left wing.

Late on Bellingham missed the chance of a hat-trick when Stevens produced another fine save when he was clean through, and Leon Broadhurst also found the Valley an impenetrable barrier with two shots in quick succession ably blocked.

With Stevens's handling finally letting him down when he dropped a high cross in stoppage time, James Husband gleefully benefited with Leamington's fourth by heading down into an open goal.

Valley Line-up: Stevens; Nicell, Donaghey, Herbert, Gordon; Gearing (Davis), Purton, Simpson (Melvin), Staff; Kolodynski, Ramsay. Subs not used: Bell, Richards, Castleton. Booked: Melvin. Sent off: None.