Valley were well-beaten at Claines Lane by promotion chasing Worcester City.
After a relatively even first half on a very heavy pitch, the hosts ramped up the pressure in the second half and deservedly broke the deadlock on 71 minutes before adding two more late on.
Caine Elliott and Dan Summerfield were back into the Town starting line-up, with Redditch dual registration defender Max Ram replacing the unavailable Bodi Thistleton in Town's back line.
A free-kick from City skipper Adam Mace drifted just wide in the opening minutes, as the hosts enjoyed the bulk of the early possession on a boggy playing surface, with Town's best chance of the first quarter of an hour seeing Ram's header blocked, before he screwed his follow-up effort well wide of the target.
Another Mace free-kick was high and wide, with a further set-piece from distance - this time by Elliott Hartley - going closer, but still failing to trouble Paul Hathaway.
Hathaway was then called into action though with a decent low stop to Zach Guinan's effort from a tight angle, before the best chance of the half fell to Rugby when Trey Charles ran onto Chris Clements' excellent through-ball - only to be denied by a well-timed saving tackle from Charlie Wise.
Charles's overhead strike shortly after flew over the bar, before the hosts ended the period strongly with Hayden Reeves heading one straight at Tyreace Brown, and Hathaway comfortably gathering Sopuruchukwu Obieri's shot.
With Rugby attacking the markedly-spongy end after the restart, opportunities for them were highly restricted and it was pretty much all Worcester thereafter.
Jordan Lymn had two chances for City in quick succession when cutting in from the right-hand-side, and he first fired one well over, before he saw Josh Thomas do well to cut out his delivery to the near post.
Mace's resulting, teasing corner was somehow not helped home by a Worcester player though, but the early second half pressure continued, with Obieri striking the crossbar and Hartley heading over Guinan's cross from five yards out.
Taylor Townsend also volleyed one off-target, before Guinan took advantage of hesitant Town defending to steer the ball home on the half-turn after Rugby had failed to initially clear yet another Worcester corner.
Valley sub Austin Sparkes registered his side's solitary strike on goal eight minutes after the opener, but his free-kick from distance was easily caught by keeper Daniel Moore.
Reeves headed over Mace's free-kick, before City doubled their lead in calamitous fashion for Hathaway, with Town's keeper slipping as he looked to position himself to deal with a lofted pass which gave the quick-thinking Shay Palmer the opportunity to calmly clip the ball home into an empty net.
Worcester's third came courtesy of a close-range finish from Guinan after Hartley's cross had found itself over to him at the far post.
Valley Line-up: Hathaway; Thomas, Ram (Francis 90'), Brown; Ronald, Summerfield, Clements (Sahota 75'), Elliott (Sparkes 71'), Dawkins; Charles (Davidson-Miller 69'), Reka. Subs not used: Warren. Booked: Ram.
