Valley deservedly overcame potentially tricky opposition in horrendous weather conditions at Butlin Road.

Much of the game was played out in driving rain and high winds, but Town edged out their near neighbours thanks to a Louis Guest own goal, an Edwin Ahenkorah penalty and Danico Johnson's eventual decider just beyond the hour mark.

With Omar Recci, Barry Fitzharris and Dylan Parker back into Carl Adams's starting eleven, Valley had raced to a two goal lead within the opening eight minutes.

The first goal came after a decent long pass by Alex Lock had picked out Luke English on the right wing.

The full-back's cross was nearly helped home by Parker, before Guest steered the ball past his own keeper Tom Cross.

Guest was the fall guy again shortly after when he fouled Justin Marsden in the box to allow Ahenkorah to step and send his spot-kick into the bottom left hand corner.

With the wind strongly in the visitors' favour, it was almost inevitable that chances to peg back the early deficit would come their way, and Rugby keeper Ash Bodycote was soon in the action in doing well to save Ryan Harkin's close range effort.

Omar Recci nearly replicated Guest's feat when heading one just over his own goal, whilst at the other end Ahenkorah's strike from a tight angle was kept out by Cross.

The plethora of penalty box incident persisted, with Loyiso Recci blocking another Coventry attempt on the goal-line as part of the away side's best spell of the first half, which also saw Bodycote do well to keep out Guest's header and then the home keeper scrambled to push over a swirling corner.

Town regained control of proceedings in the lead-up to the interval though, and were unlucky not to extend their advantage on a number of occasions.

Ahenkorah's shot was blocked away for a corner, Parker's strike was also deflected the wrong side of the post after an English long throw and an excellent goal-line clearance by Lewis Noon denied Danico Johnson what looked to be a certain goal.

Another Danico Johnson low effort just before half-time also flew narrowly off-target, with the same player having the hosts' first opportunity of the new period when his clever back-heel nearly caught Cross out.

Sphinx sub Jamal Adams then nearly made an instant impact, but Bodycote used his feet to good effect to scupper his chance of registering against his old club.

Rugby's play in and around the box was better than of late, and within a few minutes their interchange play nearly saw them break through with both Danico Johnson and Ahenkorah both denied by Cross.

However Coventry got themselves in the game on 59 minutes when they capitalised on some poor defending to pull one back through Harvey Smith's low finish.

Valley's two goal advantage was soon restored though, when Johnson executed a calm finish to Marsden's smart through ball.

English's well-timed tackle on Smith prevented another for the Sphinx striker, before Lawrence Rawlings scrambled one home from a corner to set up a nervy conclusion to the affair for the home fans.

Those nerves may have been saved if sub Max Johnson had converted Town's second penalty of the game after fellow replacement David Kolodynski had been tripped in the box, but he struck the base of the post from twelve yards instead.

Rugby managed to hold on with relative comfort though, with Adams's looping header onto the top of the crossbar the closest Sphinx came to grabbing a point.

Valley Line-up: Bodycote; English, Rosser (Lee Thomas), Omar Recci, Loyiso Recci; Fitzharris, Lock, Marsden (Max Johnson); Danico Johnson, Ahenkorah (Kolodynski), Parker. Subs not used: Hayward, Hancocks. Booked: Lock, Lee Thomas, Omar Recci, Danico Johnson.

Sphinx line-up: Cross, Kavanagh, Fraser, Noon, Guest, Bryson, Rawlings, Woodward, Smith, Semahimbo, Harkin. Subs: Draper, Stewart, Holloway, Adams, Willis.