Valley were once more soundly beaten on their travels, with Nottingham-based Basford making them pay for some early missed opportunities on a drizzly Bank Holiday Monday afternoon.
Town made two changes from the FA Cup victory over Coventry Sphinx, with both Ryan Walker’s and Tom Liversedge’s injuries seeing them benched – giving first competitive starts for Tom Glasscoe and Callum Powell.
Rugby started brightly, with Powell’s heavy touch in the area to David Kolodynski’s pass ending one early good move, and then Powell testing Saul Deeney with a good shot on the turn from twenty yards, which the United keeper fingertipped around the post.
Powell almost played in Kolodynski and Danny Clifton fired one over, before the hosts first shot of the game saw Reuben Wiggins-Thomas harmlessly curl one over from the edge of the penalty area.
Deeney parried a low strike by Kolodynski after Sam Warburton had slipped him in, with Kolodynski narrowly missing out again when he fired over from eighteen yards.
The hosts soon made Town pay for their lack of a finish, when on 34 minutes Stuart Hendrie tapped home from close range after Ashley Bodycote could only parry Dion Meikle’s cross.
The goal visibly boosted Basford, and they put in a much more controlled performance after the interval with the dangerous Wiggins-Thomas soon in the action with a quick turn and strong shot – which Bodycote did well to push over the bar.
Wiggins-Thomas then ran onto a long ball behind the Rugby defence to make it two nil with a composed finished past Bodycote, with Hendrie almost adding to the total when he was just off-target with his strike.
On the hour mark the visitors almost halved the arrears though, when Kolodynski smashed one against the crossbar after a well-worked set-piece.
Wiggins-Thomas had another opportunity when through on goal, with Bodycote then equal to a double strike by Hendrie, before Basford rounded off the game when the unmarked Meikle headed home a deep Blair Anderson free-kick with three minutes of normal time remaining.
Valley
Line-up: Bodycote; Glasscoe (Holloway), Kelly, Rowley, Ryan; Parker, Warburton, Clifton, Towers; Kolodynski, Powell. Subs not used: Mills, Walker, Liversedge. Booked: Parker, Ryan, Towers.
Basford line-up: Deeney, Boafo, Meikle, Hollis ,Darkin, McCormick, Hendrie, Grayson, Wiggins-Thomas, Grantham. Subs: Shannon-Lewis, Brown, Oates, Smith, Wood. |