Josh Ruff's late penalty settled a scrappy local end-of-season derby at Coventry United.

Rugby's final away trip of the season was at the same destination of their first on an extremely difficult Butts Park Arena pitch which made for a poor spectacle generally.

Coventry started strongly but Rugby gradually got to grips with things but had to wait until the closing stages to get the breakthrough.

Dave Stringer named an unchanged team from the defeat at Westfields on Saturday while Coventry's side was unrecognisable due to the amount of games they have had to play in recent weeks to catch up.

The hosts had the better of the opening exchanges with Chris Cox missing the target with the first sight of goal early on before Sean Castleton had to make an excellent recovery tackle.

Perhaps the best chance for Coventry came soon after as Shaquille McDonald streaked away from the Rugby defence into the box but could only blasts his effort wide from 10 yards.

It took until the half hour mark for Rugby to have their first real sniff of goal as Sam Belcher slipped in Stuart Hendrie inside a packed penalty area but his shot lacked power and was easily saved by Untied stopper Thomas Dyche.

Harry Holloway shot over from the edge of the box and Sean Castleton narrowly headed over from a corner before the best chance of half arrived as Valley striker David Kolodynski showed good strength in area to get away from marker before his low shot was parried by Dyche but, under heavy pressure from covering defender, Hendrie could not find the target with the follow-up from close range.

That was to be hendrie's final involvement as he was forced off with injury as Sam Beasley took his place, meaning a more advanced postion for Ruff.

Rugby started to get on top towards the end of the half as Kolodynski saw Dyche scramble to tip his downward header around the post after Conor Wright's cross from the right and before half time Kolodynski headed over at the near post from Holloway's excellent centre after a short corner.

United nearly opened the scoring early in the second half when Beasley was dispossessed in midfield by Gift Mussa but the swift counter-attack resulted in McDonald's low shot being tipped around the post by Niall Cooper.

As both teams tired, the second half became open as Coventry sat back a little more and tried to hit Rugby more on the break but they struggled to create any more meaningful opportunities.

Meanwhile Rugby came close when Belcher's low shot in the area was well saved before the follow up, which was heading in via a deflection off Kolodynski, was kept out by a terrific reaction save by Dyche.

The game appeared to be petering out before the pivotal moment in the final five minutes as David Kolodynski was shoved to the floor in the area as he lined up to shoot and, despite a five-minute delay to find a match ball, Josh Ruff kept his composure to stroke home the penalty for his 11th of the season.

There was still time for a further chance when Kolodynski did well to release a surging Remie Birch through on goal from left back but his shot was just about kept out by goalkeeper before a covering defender cleared off the line.

Valley Line-up: Cooper; Wright, Birch, Dance, Castleton; Mills, Holloway, Belcher, Ruff; Hendrie (Beasley), Kolodynski. Subs not used: Print, Rowley. Booked: Belcher.