VALLEY IMPRESS IN OPENING DAY SUN

Rugby Town produced a dominant opening day performance to easily see off Ashford Town in Middlesex.

By Jon Venner Tweet

Photo: Martin Pulley

Striker Seb Lake-Gaskin smashes in his second and Rugby's fourth to kill the game.

Two goals apiece from Seb Lake-Gaskin and Richard Blythe secured the points, after the hosts had taken a 29th minute lead.

Town boss Dave Stringer managed to complete the signing of Ellis Myles ahead of the game, and the full-back was one of four players to make their competitive debuts for the club.

The two sides traded chances early in the game, with Lake-Gaskin’s curling effort just off-target and another of the debutants Fazel Koriya ballooning well-over after Lake-Gaskin turned provider with a clever back-heel.

At the other end, Myles made a well-timed saving tackle on Kofi Lockhart-Adams after Ed Booth had been dispossessed in the box, and Dave Bevan then comfortably gathered a Mark Bitmead effort.

The visitors continued to threaten though, and Booth was only just unable to get off a stabbed shot from close range when the ball got stuck under his foot.

Then excellent play from Craig Kelly saw the left-back drive forward before releasing Seb Hamilton, but the striker delayed his shot – allowing a defender to block.

Therefore it was against the run of play that Ashford took the lead, when Ashley Lodge broke quickly after a Valley corner, before squaring it for Lockhart-Adams to tap home.

Rugby were level within two minutes though, with Blythe finding Lake-Gaskin – whose neat turn and rapid shot across Paul McCarthy gave the keeper no chance.

A further two minutes on, Blythe made it 2-1 when he flicked home Hamilton’s low cross into the penalty area.

The home side rallied a little ahead of the interval, with Scott Weight and Lockhart-Adams having half chances, but Bevan preserved the advantage with regulation stops.

Shortly after the restart, Blythe was on-target again finishing off a good team move which had seen Robbie Banks beat a couple of Ashford players and again involved the on-form Lake-Gaskin.

Rugby continued to dominate proceedings as the second half progressed.

Hamilton’s rasping shot went just wide, a Banks twenty five yarder flew over the crossbar and another Hamilton effort was blocked amidst claims of handball, as the chances came thick and fast.

Lake-Gaskin grabbed Valley’s fourth just past the hour mark, when he ran through on Hamilton’s headed flick to Bevan’s long upfield punt, before smashing powerfully in from twelve yards.

Ashford substitute Samad Kazi fired over in a rare threatening moment from the Ash Trees, although it was a minor blip for Valley – with Lake-Gaskin nearly securing his hat-trick with a chip over McCarthy that ultimately ended up on the roof of the net.

Kelly’s low free-kick was well saved and Rugby replacement Rob Foster almost scored late-on when he rounded McCarthy – only to see the keeper quickly recover to deny him.

Valley Line-up: Bevan; Myles, Kelly, Miller, Booth; Austin, Koriya, Banks, Blythe; Lake-Gaskin (Foster), Hamilton (Fagan). Subs not used: Gudger, Hall. Booked: None.

Ashford line-up: McCarthy, Knock, Thomas, Conteh, Mullan, Weight, Bitmead, Lodge, Bennett, Lockhart-Adams, Duffy. Subs: Mann, Curtis, Kazi, Luckins, Tobin.