Adams rallies Rugby Town for key clash - The Rugby Observer

Adams rallies Rugby Town for key clash

Rugby Editorial 16th Nov, 2018   0

BOSS Carl Adams wants second-placed Rugby Town to put some breathing space between themselves and third-placed Pinchbeck United, who they lock horns with on Saturday.

The two sides swapped places in the United Counties Premier last weekend after Town maintained their perfect home league record with a 4-0 win over Sleaford, while Pinchbeck suffered a 6-3 reverse at Newport Pagnell.

Those results mean Rugby now enjoy a two-point advantage over United, with Daventry holding a nine-point lead over them at the top.

However, Daventry have played two games more at this stage of the season.




Rugby boss Adams confirmed he was a happy man at the moment.

He said: “Things are going well. We are winning games comfortably, scoring lots of goals and not conceding that often, so the spirit in the squad is understandably high.


“It’s a big game this weekend as it gives us an opportunity to put some real daylight between us and Pinchbeck, who have had a bit of a tough time of late.

“It would be good to get a bit closer to Daventry and put some pressure on them too, but they’ve managed to squeeze in some extra league games already and get the extra points on the board.”

Saturday’s hosts have won just once in their last five outings in all competitions, including a 6-0 defeat at Daventry last month which ended their unbeaten nine game start to the 2018/19 league campaign.

Town’s victory over Sleaford extended their run of league games without a loss to seven, with five of the six wins included within that seeing them score four times.

Adams had signed Fazel Koriya ahead of the weekend fixture at Butlin Road, with the veteran attacker returning to the club for the third time in the process.

As with other recent signings Liam Francis and Trey Brathwaite, Adams had hoped to get Koriya on board in the summer but the ex-Rushden & Diamonds man opted to stay with Newport Pagnell, for whom he had scored more than 30 goals last season.

Koriya marked his latest Town debut with a late penalty against Sleaford to take his Valley career goalscoring tally to 16, after two spells at Butlin Road under Dave Stringer between 2012 and 2015.

Adams said: “It’s great to finally get Fazel over the line as he has a great record in this league.

“With the impact that Harry Holloway has had on his return from injury, it feels like we have made four new signings over recent weeks now.

“The emergence of Josh Steele has also given the squad a boost in depth.”

Valley will be without Lewis Hayden this Saturday after the midfielder picked up a fifth yellow card of the season against Sleaford, with fellow midfielder Stefan Blake also struggling with a thigh problem which saw him withdrawn at half-time on Saturday.

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