Town returned from the Black Country empty handed after Nathan Stone secured the hosts the victory with a fifteenth minute goal at their somewhat antiquated Sports Ground stadium.

Overall it was a lacklustre showing by a Rugby side that continue to struggle to find any level of consistency in the closing weeks of the MFL campaign, although the home team also failed to truly extend Valley keeper Niall Cooper again in this forgettable end-of-season affair following Stone’s acrobatic finish just ahead of the quarter of an hour mark.

Town boss Dave Stringer made two changes to the starting line-up from the one that had come from behind to beat Sporting Khalsa four days previously.

The returning duo of Harry Holloway and Sam Beasley had helped spark Rugby to that win from the bench, but they were on from the off this time round in place of Sam Belcher and David Kolodynski.

The visitors were simply not on their game in the opening period, and Lye were quick to press and hassle Rugby on the ball all across the pitch - with their skipper Simon Williams particularly industrious in this respect.

The deciding goal came shortly after Cooper had pulled off his only proper save of the encounter, when he did well to tip Jack Till’s effort over the crossbar.

The ball was soon back in the Town box though, and the Valley defence were punished for a lack of awareness - allowing the unmarked Stone to apply an acrobatic overhead kick into the back of the net.

The remainder of the half was a virtual non-event, although Josh Ruff did strike one free-kick into the Lye defensive wall before referee Ross Smart finally put an end to the crowd’s boredom with the half-time whistle.

Valley’s performance after the break was slightly improved – without generating any significant goalscoring opportunities, and all too often striker Ruben Wiggins-Thomas was left isolated up front, as Rugby’s long ball strategy was easily dealt with by a Lye defence well marshalled by centre-half Luke Paskin.

Another weak Ruff free-kick did not make it past the wall, before Town finally carved out an opportunity late in the game when Wiggins-Thomas tested Tom Turner with a decent strike which produced an equally decent save by the home keeper.

Turner was the central figure in the match’s only remaining moment of note, when he received a red card in the closing minutes for kicking out at Kolodynski - following a disputed award of a free-kick by match official Smart.

Valley Line-up: Cooper; Wright, Birch, Dance, Castleton; Beasley (Belcher), Mills; Hendrie, Holloway (Print), Ruff (Kolodynski), Wiggins-Thomas. Subs not used: None. Booked: Kolodynski

Lye line-up: Turner, Roberts, Tye, Meacham, Paskin, Shilvcock, Stone, Williams, Till, Chilton, Garmson. Subs: Finch, Solomon, Drew, Irvine, Pearlman.