Valley suffered a heavy defeat on the road as Cambridge City cantered to an easy win at Westwood Road.
Any hopes of an instant bounce-back after the disappointing defeat at Lye three days previously were again all but over by half-time, as Town again went into the break with a three-goal deficit, with Roger Lee's solitary strike for them one of three goals scored in first-half stoppage time.
Town manager Carl Adams shuffled his pack again in search of a successful formula, with Lee in from the start after his relatively impactful appearance from the bench at Lye and Dan Summerfield, Luke English and Ryan Sahota also back in the team.
The game started relatively evenly, and there was an early chance for Town when Massiah McDonald sent his shot way over the target from distance.
The home side were soon asserting their authority though, with Valley keeper Matt Hill called into action on a number of times in close succession - including just managing to scrape the ball the right side of the line after a scramble in the goalmouth and then keeping out a strike from wide by Patrick Staszewski.
There was bad news for the visitors after a quarter of an hour though, when defender Keenah Rosser fell awkwardly making a challenge and was ultimately stretchered off the pitch with a suspected broken arm.
When the game resumed after a lengthy delay, it was Cambridge once more that were in the ascendance.
Daniel Cotton fired one wide from thirty yards with his first sighter of the evening, although Dan Summerfield did also lift the ball over the target after Edwin Ahenkorah had laid the ball back to him following a decent move from Rugby.
Cotton had two further efforts for City, with Hill catching the next one - also from distance, and then he blazed an opportunistic first-time strike over.
Joe Hood also missed with a cleanly struck half-volley, before Cambridge opened the scoring on 39 minutes when Lewis Darlington followed up on an initial attempt that had been blocked on the line by Josh Thomas to eventually bundle the ball over the line.
With momentum firmly behind them now, the hosts pushed to impose further damage on Rugby, and Hood applied another scrambled goal to make it two - somehow sneaking the ball through Hill's legs at close range.
The third came in the sixth minute of first-half stoppage-time when Cotton finally found his shooting radar by beating Hill with a powerfully struck effort, after he had created space for himself on the edge of the box.
There was a bright spark briefly for Town though, after City keeper Joe Welch could only flap at a Barry Fitzharris corner - allowing Lee to calmly guide the ball through a number of bodies and into the bottom corner.
However, in the eleventh minute of added-time, Cambridge restored their three-goal advantage after Summerfield allowed Darlington a run down the channel and he duly crossed for Stan Leech to tap in.
The home side looked comfortable on their lead from the beginning to the end of the second period, and had a number of opportunities to extend it further.
Thomas block-tackled one goalbound effort from Leech, and then Hill kept out a snapshot volley from sub Mikey Davis.
A double-block from Liam Francis also denied City, but from the second of these, the ball was soon returned into the penalty area for Leech to head home from five yards.
With Town's spirit beginning to fail them, there was further misery for them with the dismissal of Drew Kear for motioning his head towards Richard Black, and with more and more gaps starting to appear in the Rugby back-line, Leech had two good chances to complete a hat-trick late on, but was denied both times by decent stops from Hill.
Valley
Line-up: Hill; Thomas, English (Burke), Rosser (Francis); Kear, Summerfield, Lee, Fitzharris, Sahota; Ahenkorah (Motshweni), McDonald. Subs not used: Lock, Lashley. Bookings: Summerfield. Sent Off: Kear.
