A Mason Rowley header on the stroke of half-time gave Rugby victory over Midland Football League opposition.
Town earned themselves a First Qualifying Round tie at Ilkeston with a solid performance, with sixteen year old Ashley Bodycote marking his surprise debut in goal with a clean sheet.
Bodycote's late inclusion was one of two changes from Rugby’s previous game, with Ryan Walker also returning at full-back in place of the suspended Edi Appleton, and the hosts started on the front foot with Sam Warburton twice threatening the Sphinx defence with his pace.
The hosts really should have taken the lead when David Kolodynski seized upon a short back pass from Ashley Jackson, but having rounded Coventry keeper Carl O’Neill, the out-of-touch striker could then only help the ball the wrong side of the frame.
At the other end, it was a relatively quiet baptism for Bodycote, although one of the five ex-Valley men in the Sphinx starting line-up - Lewis McBride - did send a header just over the bar from a deep looping cross.
The impressive Craig Kelly shot wide for Rugby, Danny Clifton put in two good attempts and Rowley also headed one wide, before Rowley made no mistake when he met Kelly's free-kick into the box to head powerfully past O'Neill in first half stoppage time.
Town carried on where they had left off after the break, with Kolodynski flashing one across the face of the goalmouth and O’Neill doing well to keep out a Tom Liversedge effort at close range, before another ex-Townee Avun Jephcott blazed over from a few yards out for Sphinx.
Bodycote then pulled off a top drawer stop to deny sub Ashley Cain’s goalbound poke, with the teenage keeper soon back in the action when comfortably gathering Robbie Banks’ twenty yard strike.
This signalled the end of the visitors’ best spell of the game, and it was Town that ended the tie the stronger, with O'Neill saving decent efforts from both Callum Powell and Kolodynski, before Bodycote made one final save in stoppage time – helping a Luke Downes shot over the bar.
Valley
Line-up: Bodycote; Walker (Powell), Kelly, Rowley, Ryan; Parker, Warburton (Mills), Clifton, Towers; Kolodynski, Liversedge (Glasscoe). Subs not used: Holloway. Booked: Parker.
Sphinx Line-up: O’Neill, Downie, Jackson, Rooney, Jones, Banks, Downes, Blythe, Piggon, McBride, Jephcott. Subs: Dodds, Brown, Cain, Thompson, Bates, Jays, Taylor. |