Town failed to build on their weekend success at Egham, putting in a lacklustre performance in defeat to a direct Rovers outfit.

Manager Dave Stringer was again left bemoaning his side’s propensity to gift the opposition soft goals, with one either side of half-time for Barton’s strike pairing of Keshi Anderson and Tony Burnett securing them the points.

Lewis McBride made a first appearance in a Valley shirt for nearly two months, replacing the unavailable Jamie Towers in the only change from Saturday’s 4-1 victory.

The hosts made the better start though, with Burnett dragging his effort from the edge of the box wide, and Kevin Kilroy curling a low free-kick the wrong side of the target.

For Rugby, Seb Lake-Gaskin’s powerful shot also went just past the post, after Will Grocott had picked him out, and David Kolodynski almost capitalised on a poor Barton back-pass by blocking keeper Kyle Forster’s clearance, but unfortunately the ball bounced agonisingly wide.

Town’s best spell of the match then saw Kolodynski link well with Sam Youngs, leading to a low strike under pressure from the striker which Forster saved, although he looked to have a valid claim for a penalty from the challenge.

Forster also tipped a long range effort by Craig Kelly around the post, before the home side took the lead on 37 miutes when Lake-Gaskin lost the ball upfield, allowing Rovers to break quickly and punish an exposed Town defence – with Anderson finishing the move with a powerful shot under Nick Bennion’s body.

With ten minutes played after the restart, it was Rugby skipper Alex Gudger’s turn to make a costly individual error when he totally missed a long clearance – allowing Burnett to run through and neatly lob the ball over Bennion.

Whilst Valley never really looked like mounting a successful comeback, they did create a series of half chances – with Kolodynski putting another low effort wide and McBride shooting straight at Forster, with the keeper later redeeming himself for dropping a Kelly corner by making a reaction save from Youngs.

Another Gudger misjudgement almost saw Burnett grab his second and his side’s third, before Town’s best chance of the half came when Grocott played in Kolodynski – but once more the finish was lacking.

Valley Line-up: Bennion; George, Kelly, Rowley, Gudger; McBride, Grocott, Youngs, Blythe (Bishop); Lake-Gaskin (Marsden), Kolodynski. Subs not used: Austin. Booked: Lake-Gaskin, Gudger.

Barton line-up: Forster, Hassan, Condon, Gatti, Andrews, Kilroy, Sawyer, Lee, Burnett, Anderson, Brown. Subs: Terry, Ottaway, Vincent, Keating, Addae.