Town’s participation in their regional FA competition came to an end when a decent quality Walsall XI made their superior levels of fitness and conditioning count in the end.

David Kolodynski had given the hosts an interval lead, but the Saddlers struck three times in the second period to secure the tie.

Rugby boss Dave Stringer made two changes to his starting line-up from the previous outing ten days earlier, with Craig Kelly and Harry Holloway in for the departed Josh Thornton and unavailable Chadd Birch.

The visitors included first team squad regulars Nicky Devlin and Flo Cuvelier in their side, as well as a few other development players with some previous first team experience under their belts.

One of that latter group Will Shorrock had the game’s first chance on six minutes when he lifted over Cameron Peters’ lay-back, but it was Valley that went the closest to taking an early lead after Ruben Wiggins-Thomas ran onto a long upfield punt to head over Walsall keeper Brandon Ganley and onto the crossbar.

Sam Tonks then shot wide at the other end, with Peters also hooking one the wrong side of the target for the Football League team.

The home side responded well though and put in their best spell of the half, with Kelly almost in on the left-hand side of the penalty area and Holloway having a shot blocked after he had jinked into the box.

The opener came on 32 minutes after James Dance had done well to release Aiden Print down the right and Print’s well-executed final ball across the goalmouth was bundled home by Kolodynski at the second attempt.

Niall Cooper’s fine one handed save to Rory Oliver’s effort preserved Town’s half-time advantage, but the scores were level five minutes after the restart through Peters’ low finish to Mitch Candlin’s assist.

Peters could have added to his tally shortly after, but his attempted chip was easily taken by the advanced Cooper.

The game’s turning point came around the hour mark after Sam Belcher had put in a good tackle to regain possession for Town.

The midfielder then played a neat one-two with Kolodynski, before dragging his shot wide from just inside the area.

The miss sparked the away side into action once more, with Candlin firing straight at Cooper and Tobias Hayles-Docherty flashing one across the face of the goal.

However Walsall soon took the lead after Candlin had struck the base of the post with a powerful first-time attempt, leading to Cuvelier’s follow-up cross being helped into his own net by Brad Harris.

Cooper then denied Peters again with another one-handed stop, before Hayles-Docherty made things safe with a low finish to Devlin’s pass.

There was no lack of effort from Valley in the remaining ten minutes of the match, but they failed to trouble Ganley in the Walsall goal.

Peters squandered a decent opportunity for a fourth when he broke through, whilst Cooper pulled off his best save of the tie with an excellent reflex stop to keep out Candlin’s audacious flick late-on.

Valley Line-up: Cooper; Print, Kelly, Dance, Harris; Holloway, Ruff, Belcher; Ashby (Castleton), Kolodynski (R Birch), Wiggins-Thomas. Subs not used: Bodycote. Booked: TBC.

Walsall line-up:  Ganley, Tonks, Devlin, Shorrock, Vann, Kendrick, Oliver, Cuvelier, Candlin, Peters, Hayles-Docherty.  Subs: Massamba, Ruddock, O’Sullivan, Nolan .