Rugby's title bid took a dent after they failed to see off the Ducks at Butlin Road.

After a relatively even first half where the two sides traded a goal apiece, it was pretty much one way traffic in the second as Valley looked for a winner, but they were just unable to find the cutting edge required.

With David Kolodynski away on holiday and Jared Cunniff’s swollen ankle ruling him out, there was a debut in defence for new signing Luke Connolly and a rare midweek appearance from Richard Blythe for Rugby.

The visitors started brightly, although it was Town that had the first real effort of the game when Seb Lake-Gaskin’s great run down the left ended with a low cross to Greg Kaziboni at the far post, but the ball stuck under the winger’s feet and he was unable to help it home.

A surging Kaziboni run into the box then provided him with a chance to make amends for the miss, but his shot was saved by the legs of keeper Jack Sillitoe.

Aylesbury took the lead in the 22nd minute though, when Liam Smyth’s perfectly flighted free-kick was flicked on by Paul Edgeworth, and Niall Cooper could not get enough behind the header to keep it out.

Another Kaziboni run led to a Jamie Towers’ strike that Sillitoe was again equal to, but from the resulting loose ball Justin Marsden powered home from twenty yards for the equaliser.

Danny Jones could easily have restored United’s lead before the interval when he latched onto an Ellis Myles’ mistake, but he flashed his effort across the face of the goal instead.

The second half belonged almost exclusively to Rugby, with chance after chance going begging.

The majority of these missed opportunities fell to Kaziboni – who twice blazed over the bar from good positions and then struck the upright with a volley after a goalmouth scramble which had seen Valley fail to force the ball home on a number of occasions.

Lewis McBride and Lake-Gaskin had also seen decent efforts blocked in the period’s opening exchanges, with Sillitoe then denying Blythe as the game entered its last quarter.

As hard as they pushed, it was just not going to be Town’s evening, with a Connolly long range shot deflected over, a Myles shot blocked in the box and finally McBride sending one just over the bar in game’s dying minutes.

Valley Line-up: Cooper; Myles, Fox, Gudger, Connolly; Kaziboni, Marsden, Blythe, McBride; Towers, Lake-Gaskin. Subs not used: Williams, Palmer, Orange, Beastall. Booked: None.

Aylesbury line-up: Sillitoe, Hatch, Williams, J.Wood, Morgan, S.Wood, Grace, Smyth, Edgeworth, Field, Jones. Subs: Baines, Petrucci, Armstrong, Reynolds, Joyce.