Rugby Town suffered their heaviest defeat of the season at the Victoria Ground against high-flying Bromsgrove Sporting.
In front of a crowd of more than 900, Sporting eased past a generally ineffectual Rugby side with two goals in each half doing the damage.
Valley boss Dave Stringer made four changes to this starting line-up from the previous weekend’s Vase victory against Harrowby, with skipper James Dance returning in the centre of defence, and Fabian Smith and Ben Ashby also back in the team.
Tevin Shakespeare stepped in for the injured David Kolodynski up-front.
The visitors started brightly enough, although keeper Niall Cooper was in the action early on with a decent save from home captain Sam Wills.
Shakespeare then tested Cooper’s counterpart Reece Francis when he found himself in space, but Francis was down well at the near post to keep out the resulting strike.
The home side took the lead shortly after this missed opportunity when calamitous defending saw Craig Kelly and Brad Harris collide in dealing with a hopeful forward pass from Jack Wilson to allow Robbie Bunn to sneak in and slide the ball past Cooper.
The goal gave Bromsgrove the confidence to kick-on and they extended their lead just before the interval, when more poor Rugby defending in the build-up allowed Sean Brain the opportunity to feed Bunn for his second.
Stringer looked to change his side’s fortunes with two changes at the start of the second period, with Harry Holloway and Chadd Birch entering the action.
There was almost an instant impact, but Ruben Wiggins-Thomas could only blaze over Holloway’s inch-perfect cross.
Once again the hosts made Town pay for their missed chance, when Brain scored against his old club with a good first time finish when he fired home Wills’s low cross on the volley.
Joe Ward put one over the bar as Bromsgrove threatened to increase the margin soon after, but Rugby’s best chance of a goal then came when Wiggins-Thomas rounded keeper Francis – only to be denied by a superb saving tackle from another ex-Valley man Guy Clark.
Both Wiggins-Thomas and Ashby had further efforts saved by Francis, before in stoppage time Sporting did claim their fourth of a disappointing afternoon for Town, when Ward’s corner led to Connor Deards being the quickest to react to a loose ball and he duly slotted home from close range.
Valley
Line-up: Cooper; Print, Kelly, Dance, Harris; Brathwaite, Smith (Holloway); Shakespeare, Ashby, Ruff (Birch); Wiggins-Thomas. Subs not used: Hall, Castleton. Booked: None.
Bromsgrove line-up: Francis, Roberts, Quaynor, Wills, Clark, Morris, Spink, Bunn, Brain, Ward, Wilson. Subs: Jones, Pykett, Deards, Loveridge, Malley. |