Rugby Borough’s road to Wembley hits a dead end in the eye of Storm Darragh

A passive performance was compounded by some ill fortune and late clangers in a 5-0 home defeat to Heanor Town in the third round of the FA Vase, well and truly putting the skids under Borough’s bid.

Victory would have put Stringer’s men within four rounds of a showpiece at the home of football but in truth, they never recovered from huge gusts placing them on the back foot in the first half.

Luke Downes missed an early sitter for Rugby, scuffing straight at Alfie Roberts when free to stroke in David Kolodynski’s seventh-minute centre.

Heanor gradually adjusted to having too much wind at their backs and the conditions seemed to play a part in the opener, Ethan Wiesztort’s 25th-minute cross-shot from the right of the box either catching a gust or a nick off a retreating defender to skip inside John Meadows’s far post.

There was a 10-minute delay when visiting striker Karl Demidh went down in agony shortly after taking an uncontested shot with paramedics called out amid suspected ligament damage.

Undeterred, Heanor pressed when the first half restarted and Sacha Markelic doubled the lead with an instinctive, dipping first-time hit on the run from the edge of the box which looped beyond the stranded Meadows.

Rugby’s luck was summed up when Antonio Cristofaro hit the post with the ball flying into the gloves of Roberts before the break and while the hosts had the wind in the second half, a mix up killed the contest eight minutes after the restart.

Captain Oran Jackson and Meadows got in a muddle from a cross with Markelic on hand to guide inside the far post the third goal, puncturing Borough’s hopes of a fightback.

Things got ragged from there with Markelic denied his third at point-blank range just past the hour but he turned provider eight minutes from time, pinching Jackson’s ill-advised back pass to roll across the box for substitute Alex Seale to slam in with his first touch.

Another mistake gifted Markelic his hat-trick three minutes later, loose play in front of Rugby’s box allowing the striker lob the bouncing ball over Meadows from more than 20 yards.

Stringer admitted his lads had “a proper job” done on them.

“We were extremely poor – that was the worst we have been all season,” he said.

“There are no excuses. It was not acceptable and the players have been told that, we cannot put in performances like that and expect to win matches.

“We have two squads really, a Vase squad and a league squad, because lads who have come in over the past couple of months are cup tied. Five or six were missing who would probably have started and it showed.

“It is up to those lads (coming in) to step up to the mark. It was an eye opener, they adapted to the conditions far better than us and to say I am disappointed would be an understatement.

“Individual mistakes crept in towards the end. Oz (Jackson) has been outstanding this season, probably our best player but made a mistake, the other one with Oz and John was messy – if you saw those goals on a Sunday morning you’d be angry but we haven’t been like that at all this season.

“There are no excuses. Heanor were the better side and deserved to go through. We have to regroup and go again in the league on Wednesday.”

Fellow play-off contenders Hinckley AFC provide the midweek opposition at the Nationwide Windows Arena (7.45).

Borough: Meadows, Lashley, Fraser, Proudlock, Jackson, Sawyer, Downes (Dube, 68), McGahey, Kolodynski (Tellyn, 63), Ruzvidzo, Cristofaro. Unused sub: Lee.