Valley suffered a chastening home defeat against Corby Town as the visitors dominated from start to finish.
Rugby were second best on the night across the whole pitch and they posed little or no threat throughout in the first league meeting between the sides for fourteen years..
Town's starting line-up showed three changes from the weekend's comfortable cup win over Newcastle, with Alex Lock, Luke English and Liam Francis recalled to the opening eleven.
Corby started on the offensive from the whistle, and Abdul Koroma was soon rattling the bar with a good strike from twenty yards.
It was no surprise therefore when the visitors went ahead after just six minutes, when Khris Oti ran onto Kalern Thomas's ball to fire low past Matt Hill.
Jordan O'Brien nearly added a second when he also found space behind the Rugby defence, but he shot wide of the target, as Valley struggled to make an impact on the game.
However both Ryan Sahota and Josh Thomas did then lift efforts over the Corby crossbar, with the first opportunity seeing the young midfielder turn well in the box before putting in an effort which took a deflection on its way.
The chances continued to come at the other end too though, and Toby Hillard went close with a strike that looped up off Hill's legs before Keenah Rosser scampered back to clear the ball away for a corner.
Valley's best chance of the half fell to Loyiso Recci, but he could only volley over after the ball had sat up nicely for him in the box.
The Steelmen ended the first period strongly though, with Hill twice gathering low efforts from Hillard and Thomas respectively.
It was more of the same after the restart, with Corby soon back on the front foot when Hill pulled off a decent stop to keep out Thomas's low strike.
Two goals within two minutes all but sealed the game though, with Drew Richardson turning in Michael Jacklin's header across the penalty area and then Hillard also finishing from close range after Hill had failed to claim a long ball down the right channel ahead of Oti.
Rugby's best move of the match saw Recci play in English, but the wing-back's low cross was just beyond the reach of David Kolodynski and then Jordan Wilson at the far post, before Rugby capitulated by conceding three further goals before the end.
Oti made it four on 61 minutes when fired in a deflected free-kick awarded after Hill had picked up a Barry Fitzharris back pass, before he completed his hat-trick after seizing upon Recci's poor header to his keeper by nipping in and guiding the ball across the line.
Oti had another good chance, which this time was parried away by Hill, before he set-up his side's sixth of the evening with six minutes of normal time remaining when he pulled one back to Thomas to smash home into the roof of the net.
Town's evening of misery had earlier been compounded when Kolodynski was led away with a suspected broken wrist after an un-necessarily sturdy shove on him on the by-line, after a Corby defender had shielded the ball off for a goal-kick.
Valley
Line-up: Hill; Rosser, Recci, Francis; English (Kear (Ahenkorah)), Summerfield (Kolodynski), Fitzharris, Thomas, Lock; Sahota, Wilson. Subs not used: None. Bookings: Fitzharris, Sahota.
