Rugby Town kicked off their pre-season campaign with a defeat against Newport Pagnell Town on the 3G pitch at Butlin Road.

Even with the likes of Chris Clements, Barry Fitzharris, Ryan Sahota, Keenah Rosser, Tomasz Bukowski and Edwin Ahenkorah unavailable, manager Carl Adams still fielded two different XI's in each half as he looked to run the rule over his new-look squad which included a plethora of trialists.

There was a first appearance for new forward Trey Charles who featured in the first half alongside Paul Hathaway, Dan Summerfield and Josh Thomas.

Thomas was the only player to feature in both halves and he lined him with Liam Francis, Harrison Nee, MJ Semahimbo, Sami Muzaffar and David Kolodynski among the trialists.

Trialist Hilton Arthur opened the scoring in the first half for Rugby after cutting in from the left and finding the net with a low finish from just inside the area.

Valley's old UCL Premier South rivals Newport Pagnell turned the score on its head with two goals in the second half while Harrison Nee missed a couple of decent chances at the other end.

Valley First Half Line-up: Hathaway; Summerfield, Trialist, Thomas, Trialist; Trialist, Trialist; Alexander-Tucker, Charles, Arthur, Trialist.

Valley Second Half Line-up: Trialist; Trialist, Trialist, Thomas, Francis, Trialist, Trialist, Nee; Semahimbo, Muzaffar, Kolodynski.