Slough condemned Valley to another season in the fourth level of the non-league pyramid with a deserved victory in the play-off semi-final at Butlin Road.

Three goals within ten second-half minutes did for Dave Stringer’s side, with the visitors quickly avenging for the 2-1 defeat inflicted on them by Rugby in the regular season just ten days previously.

A nervous Rugby never really got going on the night, with the Rebels looking a much different proposition from that recent game at Holloways Park.

However it was the home side that created the first real chance of the game, with Slough keeper Jake Somerville doing well to comfortably take Richard Blythe’s rising effort from twenty yards.

The visitors went on to have the best of the first half though, with striker Ed Smith – who had been red carded for a challenge on Niall Cooper in the previous game – at the centre of most of their dangerous play.

First Smith stole a yard on his marker before shooting wide, and then he was fortunate not to be dismissed again for another late and high studded-challenge on Cooper.

Having escaped with just a yellow this time, Smith went on to lob one onto the top of the crossbar from an angled position, and then he lifted another effort wide of the target from a similar spot.

For Rugby, Seb Lake-Gaskin headed David Kolodynski’s cross wide, Somerville was down well to deny Kolodynski’s low effort, and Ellis Myles strike from distance was also gathered by the Slough keeper.

Valley had their best spell of the game in the twenty minutes following the interval though, with Lake-Gaskin going closest when smashing Blythe’s pass over the bar from close range, and Kolodynski seeing his shot deflected away for a corner after a great run down the left by Justin Marsden.

It was therefore against the run of play when the visitors opened the scoring in the 65th minute, with Smith finding himself with time and space to steer the experienced Dave Woozley’s knock-down past his arch enemy Cooper.

It was soon two when Johnnie Dyer met James Dobson’s near post corner with his head, and any chance of a Rugby comeback were shattered on 75 minutes when Dyer broke free down the left before picking out Warren Harris for a simple side-footed finish for Slough’s third.

In-between the Dyer and Harris goals, Aaron King had drawn a decent save from Somerville, but it was clear that the stuffing had been knocked out of Town, and aside from a late Greg Kaziboni shot which drifted just wide, the hosts failed to significantly trouble a solid looking Slough back-line again.

Valley Line-up: Cooper; Myles, Fox, Haines, Gudger; Marsden, Towers (Kaziboni), King (Piggon), Blythe; Kolodynski, Lake-Gaskin. Subs not used: Williams, Palmer, Hadland.

Slough line-up: Somerville, Fraser, R.Parsons, Hollis, Woozley, Short, Dyer, McClurg, Smith, Harris, Dobson. Subs: Sintim, Edwards, J.Parsons, Duff, Cornell.