Rugby Town fourth and still hanging on in promotion stakes

By Jon Venner
Rugby Town manager Carl Adams issuing instructions to the defence in their 1-0 win over Cogenhoe last weekend   PICTURE BY MARTIN PULLEYRugby Town manager Carl Adams issuing instructions to the defence in their 1-0 win over Cogenhoe last weekend   PICTURE BY MARTIN PULLEY
Rugby Town manager Carl Adams issuing instructions to the defence in their 1-0 win over Cogenhoe last weekend PICTURE BY MARTIN PULLEY

Rugby Town are still managing to hang on by their fingertips to the UCL Premier South promotion race coat-tails following their narrow 1-0 victory at Cogenhoe last Saturday.

Substitute Max Johnson’s 54th-minute winner secured Valley their latest three pointer on a bobbly Compton Park playing surface to keep them in fourth place in the table behind Hinckley LR, Harborough and Newport Pagnell.

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Town host Coventry United this weekend at Butlin Road, with Carl Adams’s side looking to maintain their excellent league form of late which has seen them only drop points in the home defeat to runaway divisional leaders Hinckley three weeks ago.

Reflecting on the Cogenhoe success, Adams said: “We knew it was going to be a tough place to go and they would be a hard side to beat, but I thought we were patient on the day and fully deserved the win in the end.

“We could have easily have scored a couple of more as we missed a few good chances, but nevertheless it was a job done well.

“We know it will be another tough game for us against Coventry. I had them down as one of the main contenders at the start of the season, but their results have been a little disappointing of late and we need to make sure that continues on Saturday.”

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The Butts Park Arena outfit have only won one of their last seven outings, and whilst they are just one place below Town in fifth, they are now five points shy of Rugby from one more game played.

More importantly, United are now ten points adrift of the top two potential promotion places, and as a result have realistically joined Wellingborough, Lutterworth and fellow city club Sphinx in recently dropping out of consideration.

Johnson’s strike on Saturday came after Town had generally dominated first half proceedings, with their best chance seeing David Kolodynski head one against the Cogenhoe crossbar.

Valley keeper Ash Bodycote remained relatively untroubled throughout as he registered his seventh clean sheet since rejoining the club in September, and it was Johnson that then went closest to scoring again with two further good opportunities - the first of which he blazed over and the second drawing a decent save from home keeper Craig Foxall.

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Town are likely to be without the services of injured duo Luke English and Dylan Parker once more this weekend, as they both look to recover from their foot fracture and leg injuries respectively ahead of Valley’s big Vase tie at North Shields in a fortnight’s time.

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