VALLEY BROKEN BY GLASS BOYS

Rugby fell to their second successive 6-0 away defeat in a poor display, which kept the home side still in with a chance of reaching the play-offs.

By Craig Webb.

Photo: Martin Pulley

Substitute winger Shawn Richards came closest for Valley but still could not find the target.

Manager Lee Colkin had to make some changes to the side which beat Tiverton, with Chris Tullin unavailable, giving a first start to young striker Michael Glover, with Matt Brown at right back.

In glorious spring sunshine, Town made the worst possible start when Aaron Drake’s shot from the edge of the penalty area took a deflection on its way to goal leaving keeper Danny Bell stranded to put the Glassboys 1-0 up.

Glover was always going to find it hard against the strong and tall central defenders and so it proved when any chances he had were quickly snuffed out. On 25 minutes Town knocked up an unwanted statistic when they conceded their 100th league goal of the season.

Drew Canavan easily went past defender Chris Hollist and with only Bell to beat tucked it through the keeper’s legs.

A couple of minutes later the home side could have further extended their lead, but Linden Dovey couldn’t stretch enough to connect to Drake’s cross.

Rugby’s only real effort in the first half came from the captain for the day Sam Youngs, but his shot was not dangerous enough to test Lewis Solly.

Rugby went into the half time, 3-0 down when Leon Broadhurst collected the ball midway through the half and his half hearted shot trickled over the goal-line with Bell out of position.

Town made a triple substitution for the second half with regular goalkeeper Andy Stevens coming on as well as Shawn Richards and Michael Love hoping to shore up the defence, but they fell further behind just 30 seconds after the restart, when Canavan scored his second goal of the game, when Town were unable to clear the cross and the midfielder scored with ease.

Rugby’s best chance of the game came in the 54th minute when Richards hit the bar from Matt Gearing’s cross, and moments later there was brief hope for a penalty when David Kolodynski went down in the area, but the referee waved play on.

The wonderfully named Lucan Spittle increased Rugby’s woes when he scored Stourbridge’s fifth when in acres of space he got on to the end of Broadhurst’s pinpoint pass.

With still more than 15 minutes to go, the ever supportive Rugby fans were getting increasingly frustrated with the team performance and their mood wouldn’t have been lifted when Dovey got in on the scoring on 84 minutes, when he left Love flailing to rifle a shot past Stevens.

Rugby Town: Bell (Stevens); Brown, Hollist, Fellows, Castleton; Gearing, Kwegyir (Richards), Youngs, Farrow; Glover (Love), Kolodynski. Subs not used: None. Booked: None. Sent off: None.

Stourbridge: Solly, Plinston, Jones, Lloyd, Drake, Bennett, Canavan, Broadhurst, Rowe, Spittle, Dovey.