TOWN
ON THE END OF ANOTHER FOUR GOAL THUMPING
It
was another disappointing afternoon at Butlin
Road last Saturday, with Town on the end of another
heavy league defeat.
By
Jon Venner
Photo:
Martin Pulley |
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Reserve
team graduate Luke Leahy
deputised at left back for Rugby and
was one of the few bright sparks for
Valley |
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Two goals midway through each
half from the visitors secured Valley’s
fate, although a Luke Keen strike just before
the interval had temporarily provided some hope
for them.
New loan signing Aaron James was
forced to pull out just before the start of the
game, after the left-back tweaked a hamstring
in the pre-match warm, meaning a place in the
starting line-up for young Luke Leahy. Andy Gundelach
returned to the centre of midfield in place of
Harry Harris.
The game’s opening exchanges
were relatively even, with Hayes’s Dominic
Rhone and Lewis Ochoa both sending efforts over
the target and then Tyrone Fagan putting in a
wayward shot, after Ben Steane had stolen possession
in a dangerous position.
Hayes took the lead on twenty
minutes however, when Louis Connor could only
parry Matthew Woods’s low shot onto the
post to give Rhone the opportunity to help home
the rebound from a tight angle.
Woods added the second shortly
after when he showed good control in the box before
firing his low shot past Connor.
Rugby stirred a little after this
two goal blow, although Steane should have done
better with a free-kick from twenty yards, but
he struck his weak effort straight at the defensive
wall.
Town’s lifeline came on
41 minutes after Robbie Banks had broke well down
the right wing before pulling the ball back to
Keen, who smashed it home after a neat turn created
him the necessary space.
Valley came out after the break
to have their best spell of the game with Fagan
seeing a shot deflected away for a corner and
Steane volleying straight into the hands of Hayes
keeper Simon Grant.
Leahy then whipped in a dangerous
cross, which was only just out of the reach of
Fagan, before Kevin Chakaddaz all but clinched
the game for the visitors when he coolly lifted
a side footed volley over Connor’s head
after Rhone had played the ball back to him.
The introduction of Seb Lake-Gaskin
gave Town a little more fizz and intent to their
attacking play, with the ex-Tamworth player also
driving a shot over the bar.
However Leahy spoilt what - up
to then - had been a solid game out-of-position
at full-back when he was dispossessed by Terry
Smith, allowing the winger a free run at goal
to give him an easy opportunity to add Hayes’s
fourth.
Grant was down well at Lake-Gaskin’s
feet to deny the substitute a late consolation.
Rugby line-up: Connor, Moran,
Leahy, Preston, Gourlay, Banks, Steane, Keen,
Fagan, Gundelach (Lake-Gaskin), Wesley. Subs not
used: Harris, Wilson, Williams.
Hayes line-up: Grant, Duffy, Owens,
Defty, Duffy, Ochoa, Smith, Buckley, Woods, Chakaddaz,
Rhone. Subs: Vincent, Charley, Logan, Walter,
Amir.
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