Rugby brushed aside Premier Division Banbury United to progress into the next round of the Southern League Cup.

United sent virtually their entire first team squad to Butlin Road for the fixture, but they were still no match for an impressive Valley side on the night.

The game was an open one from the off, and in fact it was the visitors who carved out the first real opportunity of it when Adeylinka Talabi blazed over from a good position.

That miss saw Town up their game further, with Justin Marsden, David Kolodynski, Mitchell Piggon and Mason Rowley all having good chances to open the scoring.

The seemingly inevitable first Rugby goal did come on 27 minutes though, when Marsden seized upon a slip from Scott Bridges to burst into the box and then round keeper Leigh Bedwell to score.

A speculative Kolodynski effort from fully forty yards was tipped over the bar by Bedwell, before the last chance of the half fell to Banbury – with Anderson Pinto somehow pulling the ball wide of the target.

Rugby’s second came eight minutes after the restart, when Piggon showed good strength and then vision to pick out Kolodynski in front of the goal – allowing the striker to head home from close range.

The goal rush continued when Marsden again pounced on a loose ball to blaze home from just inside the box, and Piggon’s low pull-back was clinically finished off by Lewis McBride for Town’s fourth.

The strike of the game came on 80 minutes, when McBride finished off a great move with an exquisite chip from twenty yards.

However, United did receive some consolation for their efforts with two late goals from Dominic Lawless.

Lawless, who had prior to his double strike been guilty of missing a string of good chances, twice took advantage of a lack of concentration from Rugby’s back-line.

His first was a low finish past Niall Cooper and his second took a big deflection off Craig Kelly before looping into the net.

Valley Line-up: Cooper; Myles (Bishop), Kelly, Gudger (Palmer), Rowley; Spencer, Marsden, McBride, Youngs (Moses-Garvey); Piggon, Kolodynski. Subs not used: Lake-Gaskin, Gnadja. Booked: None.

Banbury line-up: Bedwell, Bridges, Martin, Morgan, Blossom, Mbamarah, Lawless, Abrahams, McNulty, Talabi. Subs: Westwood, Dumbleton, Ryan, Cray.