Valley ended their season as they had started it – by losing to the division’s ultimate runners-up Royston.

Rugby had gone into the game with an outside chance of a place in the play-offs, but Barton’s victory at Aylesbury United rendered the encounter an academic affair in which the hosts were comfortably beaten by a well-drilled and capable Crows’ outfit.

Manager Dave Stringer made three changes from the local derby defeat at Daventry the previous weekend, with Ben George replacing Alex Austin at right-back, and Mitchell Piggon and Lewis Rankin also handed starting roles.

The visitors made most of the early play, as Rugby appeared once more to be lacking the required rhythm, drive and cutting edge – with the game’s first chance seeing Royston’s Kaan Fehmi flashing a dangerous ball across the face of Neil Collett’s goal.

Shortly after, Valley’s defence was at sixes and sevens after the dangerous Fejiri Okenabirhie’s initial shot had been blocked, and from Collett’s botched clearance, Stuart Bridges calmly lifted the ball into an empty net from the edge of the area.

Sam Youngs put one the wrong side of the post in response, but generally it was the Crows that looked the more threatening – with a further Fehmi cross almost drifting in and Bridges nearly adding another following more sloppy Town defending.

Robbie Burns blazed over the bar after Rugby for once attacked with an injection of pace, but on the stroke of half-time the visitors went close again – with Alex Gudger saving the day with a well-timed tackle on Okenabirhie.

Six minutes after the restart, Royston finally grabbed that deserved second goal, and once more it was scored by Stuart Bridges, when he stooped to flick substitute Kane Adams’s well-flighted free-kick with his head past the helpless Collett.

Crows’ keeper Ron Yates was then finally called into the game with a good reaction stop to a goalbound Mason Rowley header, although normal service was soon resumed as Okenabirhie had two more decent chances for the visitors.

The introduction of Justin Marsden, Seb Lake-Gaskin and Fazel Koriya from the bench midway through the second period did have a positive impact on the home side though, with a shot from the angle by Koriya fizzing just off-target.

With five minutes of normal time remaining, Rugby gave themselves a glimmer of hope after Jack Bradshaw was adjudged to have handled Youngs’s corner – with Lake-Gaskin stepping up to send his penalty past Yates’s right side.

However, Royston soon restored their two goal advantage to seal the game, when they broke quickly to expose a stretched defence, with Gary Hart helping the ball into the path of Okenabirhie – who ran on to apply a composed finish.

Valley Line-up: Collett; George, Kelly, Rowley, Gudger; Grocott (Marsden), Burns, Blythe, Youngs; Rankin (Koriya), Piggon (Lake-Gaskin). Subs not used: Banks, Austin. Booked: Grocott.

Royston line-up: Yates, Wharton, Bradshaw, Scott Bridges, McDevitt, Powell, Mentis, Stuart Bridges, Fehmi, Okenabirhie, Nightingale. Sub: Robins, Theobald, Scott-Morris, Hart, Adams.