LIGHTS
GO OUT ON LOCAL DERBY CUP CLASH
Rugby
Town and Daventry Town will replay their Red Insure
Cup Third Round match at Butlin Road next Tuesday
after a power failure caused the match to be abandoned
during the second half.
By
Jon Venner
Photo:
Martin Pulley |
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Valley
midfielder Richie Allen
stretches to keep possession during
the first half at Butlin Road before
the lights went out.. |
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The
two neighbours will have to face each other once
again for a place in the Quarter Final of the
Southern League Cup competition after Tuesday
evening’s tie was prematurely halted due
to a problem with the Butlin Road floodlights.
With
twenty two minutes left on the clock, the game
was nicely set-up for a potentially entertaining
conclusion when the ground was plunged into darkness
– and with little prospect of a timely recommencement
of proceedings, referee Mike Bingham ultimately
took the decision to abandon the match.
All
four goals scored in the aborted game had come
in the first half – with Tyrone Fagan twice
on target for Valley.
Fagan
had opened the scoring after just five minutes
when his looped effort deflected off a Daventry
defender and over the head of Joe Mellings, after
Luke Keen had done well to help the ball onto
him in the box.
Rugby’s
lead was short-lived though, with Josh O’Grady
spearing his shot into the bottom left hand corner
of the net after Nathan De Monte had rolled the
ball across to him after eleven minutes.
The visitors took the lead on 22 minutes when
Joe Cobb’s long range free-kick deflected
off the back of Scott Cross’s legs to trickle
past Pete Smith in the Valley goal.
Rugby responded well to this though, with Richie
Allen having a good chance saved by Mellings and
Fagan’s speculative effort from twenty five
yards skidding wide of the post.
The goal of the night did come from Fagan three
minutes ahead of the interval though, when the
striker added a neat finish to an equally impressive
through ball from his strike partner Keen.
The home side had the better of the curtailed
second half, with Seb Lake-Gaskin going close
just after the restart and Fagan squandering a
chance of a third after Allen had released him
through the middle.
However it was all immaterial after the electrical
fault forced the players to leave the pitch, and
they now will return next Tuesday evening to start
things all over again.
Valley
line-up: Smith; Moran, Reid, Booth, Preston;
Allen, Banks, Gundelach; Keen, Lake–Gaskin;
Fagan. Subs not used: Steane,
Wilson.
Daventry
line-up:
Mellings, De Monte, Lee, Thompson, Edwards, Parkinson,
O’Grady, Confue, Cross, Taylor, Cobb. Subs:
Forinton, Milligan, Hoban, Hendrie, Hicks.
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