POWER CUTS SHORT RUGBY & ROYSTON

Another Butlin Road floodlight failure cut short proceedings for Valley last Saturday, with Royston ahead through a 53rd minute strike from Ryan Lockett.

By Jon Venner Tweet

Photo: Martin Pulley

Defender Mason Rowley gets possession for Rugby during the first half at Butlin Road before the power failure

With twenty two minutes of normal time remaining, a power failure saw roughly half the lights disappear, and after a wait of around half an hour, referee Ian Rathbone decided to abandon the game.

Both sets of players seemed keen to continue playing in the reduced lighting levels, but with Rathbone concerned about safety in a couple of corners of the pitch, it meant another frustrating conclusion for all involved.

Rugby boss Dave Stringer had made one change to his starting line-up for the aborted game, with Sam Belcher making a full debut in place of Fazel Koriya.

In the action that did take place, Royston showed why they had headed the Central Division table before the game, playing neat pass and move football throughout.

Valley keeper Dave Bevan pulled off a fine save to deny Sam Spencer early on, and then Spencer put another one wide, as the visitors pushed for the opening goal.

Rugby found their feet halfway through the first period though, and Seb Lake-Gaskin’s shot from just inside the box was well-stopped by Will Norris, with David Kolodynski curling wide of the target from the follow-up move.

Sam Youngs then flashed one low across the face of Norris’s goal, but no Valley player was on-hand to add a finishing touch. Kolodynski had another good chance shortly after, but his attempted chip was easily taken by Norris.

The visitors started well again after the interval, and both Taylor Parr and Lewis Endacott shot over from distance.

Their goal came when Bevan could only parry a Luke Robins’ strike, giving Lockett the opportunity for an easy rebound tap-in.

Royston then pushed for a second ahead of the power problem, with Spencer’s low shot blocked en-route to goal by his own team-mate.

Valley Line-up: Bevan; Austin, Kelly, Rowley, Gudger; Youngs, Banks, Belcher, Palmer (Koriya); Lake-Gaskin, Kolodynski. Subs not used: Williams, Evangelinos, Wilson. Booked: Youngs, Belcher.

Royston line-up: Norris, Parr, Endacott, Bradshaw, De La Salle, Spencer, Edwards, Standen, Lockett, Collins, Robins. Subs: Wilson, Ingrey, Malins, Fehmi, Howard.