Valley extended their winning streak to five matches after coming out on top of a scrappy affair on a sticky Eyrie Ground surface.

Bedford’s lack of cutting edge meant it was ultimately a comfortable margin of victory for Rugby, with recent signing Richard Gregory twice on target for them.

However the game as a whole lacked quality, with the hosts employing a long ball strategy from the off in an attempt to circumvent the poor standard of the pitch.

Lewis McBride in for Mitchell Piggon was the only change to Rugby’s starting line-up from the previous weekend’s victory at home to Uxbridge, with returnees from injury Seb Lake-Gaskin and Lewis Rankin again named on the bench.

McBride and Gregory found themselves in decent positions in the early exchanges, but neither were able to get a telling shot off.

Russell Bull then fired one just over the bar for the Eagles, after Jordan Davis had laid the ball onto him.

Gregory broke the deadlock on 23 minutes though with a typical goal-poacher’s finish when he followed up on a low twenty yarder by Sam Youngs, which home keeper Danzelle St.Louis-Hamilton could only parry.

Bull and Davis had half chances for Bedford, before Josh Winters missed a great chance to level up the score again when he headed over from a central position.

However Gregory made the home side pay for a second time ahead of the interval, showing great control in the penalty area before turning to apply a decent finish past St.Louis-Hamilton into the corner of the net.

Justin Marsden’s fierce volley just after the restart was tipped away by St.Louis-Hamilton, after good work by Youngs, with both Josh McGoldrick and Tom Liversedge going close at the other end – the latter chance seeing Liversedge somehow scooping his effort over the bar from ten yards after he had done well to weave through the Valley defence.

The introduction of Rankin and Lake-Gaskin had given the visitors fresh impetus though, and the two substitutes combined well with seven minutes of normal time remaining to make the game safe, with Lake-Gaskin cutting inside from the left to power the ball past the keeper.

Rankin nearly made it four, after showing amazingly quick feet to glide past three Bedford players in the penalty area, only to see St.Louis-Hamilton save his low shot with his legs, with another sub Mitchell Piggon also dragging his low cross just beyond the reach of his colleagues ahead of the final whistle.

Valley Line-up: Morris; Grocott, Banks (Rankin), Rowley, Gudger; Blythe, Burns (Lake-Gaskin); Youngs, McBride, Marsden; Gregory (Piggon). Subs not used: Pritchard, Smith. Booked: Blythe, McBride, Rowley, Lake-Gaskin.

Bedford line-up: St.Louis-Hamilton, Cooper, McGoldrick, Smeathers, Oulton, Wilkinson, Davis, Winters, Liversedge, Bull, Parker. Subs: Lewis, Hopewell, Summerfield, Birch, Macrae.