RUGBY TOWN: Valley plan for busy two months after fourth game is sunk by wet weather

After 28 days without a game Boston visit this weekend
The wall does its job in Rugby Town's last game on February 8, a 2-0 win over Harborough Town   Picture by Martin PulleyThe wall does its job in Rugby Town's last game on February 8, a 2-0 win over Harborough Town   Picture by Martin Pulley
The wall does its job in Rugby Town's last game on February 8, a 2-0 win over Harborough Town Picture by Martin Pulley

Rugby Town's chances of gaining valuable points towards their UCL Premier promotion bid were literally sunk for the fourth game in a row, after their fixture at Peterborough Northern Star fell victim to the February spell of wet weather.

The majority of the division's Saturday schedule followed suit, with the only game surviving seeing the next visitors to Butlin Road - Boston Town - manage to stage their home match with Harborough.

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The Lincolnshire club's 3-3 draw ahead of their trip to Rugby this weekend lifted them up to ninth place in a table currently topped by Quorn.

Valley will be looking to complete the double over them for the second season in succession, following their 3-0 win at Boston's Tattershall Road ground back in October - thanks to a Ryan Seal double strike and a goal from Dylan Parker.

Town Director Neil Melvin was confident that the team could finally return to competitive action after what would be a 28 day break.

He said: "Fortunately the weather this week has not been as wet and the forecast for the rest of it is okay too, so we should be able to get the game on.

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"Our pitch drains pretty well, so unless there is a torrential spell over Friday night and into Saturday morning, there shouldn't be any issues with waterlogging and we should be able to bring an end to the frustrations of the past month."

The league's midweek schedule was also affected by the weather, with title favourites Shepshed amongst the clubs to miss out again - meaning they now have to complete sixteen matches within the seven remaining weeks of the season.

Another of the contenders for a coveted top two spot Holbeach missed out on a chance of jumping above Town on Tuesday evening, when Lutterworth did their near-neighbours a favour with a 1-0 home victory.

Town are making moves to boost their squad numbers having signed the popular Lewis Rankin last week on a dual-registration basis from Coleshill, with the club's all-time leading goalscorer David Kolodynski also set to come on board on a similar deal before the end of the week.

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Melvin explained: "With all the matches that have been stacking up over the last few weeks, it is certainly going to be a busy time for everybody at the top between now and the end of the season.

"We thought it was wise to have extra options available to us as cover in case of injuries and unavailabilities to our current squad in the final couple of months of the campaign - especially with the run of midweek games we will be playing."

Kolodynski has featured for Midland Football League side Long Eaton for the last two seasons having left Rugby at the end of the 2017/18 season with 224 goals under his belt from 410 appearances in three spells at the club following his 2006 debut.

Melvin concluded: "We will of course be aiming to work closely with both Lewis's and David's parent clubs as to how this works on a match-by-match basis, but we felt it was important to get something in place now ahead of the cut-off point for signings at the end of March."