Town were cruelly dumped out of the FA Cup last Saturday, when substitute Nathan Waite scored a stoppage-time winner for the visitors.

Valley had more than held their own against their higher level opponents and they deservedly twice took the lead, but were ultimately outdone by three Romulus set plays at a blustery Butlin Road.

A fit-again Niall Cooper returned in goal for Rugby, with Harry Holloway preferred to Ben Ashby in midfield in two changes from the league draw against Long Eaton four days previously.

The game started slowly, but the hosts went ahead with the first piece of meaningful action on seventeen minutes when David Kolodynski powerfully headed home James Dance’s superb deep cross.

However the Roms almost levelled soon after courtesy of a goalbound header from Rugby’s Brad Harris, but Cooper quickly backtracked to push the ball around the post to save the day.

Dance then lifted over from Ruben Wiggin-Thomas’s flick on and Josh Ruff cannoned a free-kick back off the crossbar from fully thirty yards, as Valley looked to make their superiority count.

Wiggins-Thomas and Dance also saw back-to-back chances go begging, after Kolodynski had got in behind the defence in the closing stages of the half.

Romulus were level eighteen minutes into the new period though, when Cameron Lee nodded in Todd Evans’ long throw to the far post. Town responded well to the equaliser, with Ruff picking out Dance with a long ball into the box, only for the Rugby skipper’s looping header to lack the necessary power to reach the goal.

Dance then tested keeper Leighton Smith with a rising effort from an angled position, before Town were ahead again on 74 minutes with an excellent long range dipping volley by Liam Holt which flew over Smith’s head.

Visiting captain Mark Branch squared things off again, when his in-swinging free-kick from the right hand side took a deflection on the way past Cooper.

Cooper then twice kept his side in it though, with decent stops from Branch and from another near miss own goal by Holt, but from the corner generated by the latter, Waite scrambled the ball home from close range to earn the Roms a First Qualifying Round home tie against Kettering.

Valley Line-up: Cooper; K Rowley (Print), Hall, M Rowley, Harris (Castleton); Holt, Ruff, Holloway; Dance, Wiggins-Thomas, Kolodynski. Subs not used: Ashby, Birch, Shakespeare. Booked: Hall, Dance.

Romulus line-up: Smith, Evans, Jackson, Harrison, Lee, Goodby, Francis, Farquharson, Ntamark, Morris, Branch. Subs: Abraham, Stokes, Waite, Masidi. .