DAVID KOLODYNSKI has a club appearance record in his sights after brining up 250 goals for the club last weekend.
Rugby Town’s recent revival continued last Saturday, after they coasted to a 5-0 success over relegation-threatened Biggleswade United at a sun-drenched Butlin Road.
Valley’s FA Vase Fifth Round exit at North Shields in the middle of February had prompted a return of just a single point from the three subsequent UCL outings, but Town have now followed this with three league wins on the bounce to boost their hopes of a third place finish in the Premier South Division.
Rugby boss Carl Adams reflected on the latest victory: “Once we got going on Saturday, it was a good all-round team performance, with a number of stand-out individual contributions in there too.
“It took us a while to get over the disappointment of going out of the Vase, but hopefully we can now end the season with a bit of a flourish.”
Adams’s playing right-hand man Justin Marsden had given the hosts a two goal lead at half-time with his first double in a Town shirt for seven years, and then David Kolodynski matched Marsden’s feat with two of his own after the break, with Caine Elliott rounding off the scoring to register Town’s best home win of the campaign to-date.
Kolodynski’s second of the afternoon represented his 250th goal for the club in all competitions, as the 33-year-old striker continues to rack up multiple records and milestones in his fourth spell at Butlin Road.
Having already passed 300 league starts, 200 league goals and 350 all-competition starts in recent weeks, Kolodynski now looks to further cement his club legend status by equalling the all-competitions starting appearances record currently held by Danny Conway by the end of the season.
Kolodynski is now five short of Conway’s total of 373, and there are just five games remaining for Valley in 2021/22 – beginning with the trip to another of the division’s lower reach teams Rothwell Corinthians this weekend.
The Northamptonshire hosts sit in 18th place in the table and still have an outside chance of being dragged into the battle to avoid the drop, after having registered just five league wins this season.
Adams continues to plan for the 2022/23 campaign with Madundo Semahimbo the latest player to agree a contract deal with the club.
Semahimbo’s commitment takes the total of players contracted until the end of next season to nine and comes as a deserved reward for his recent form, after the one-time Town Academy prospect returned to Rugby in December after a spell at Coventry Sphinx.
Adams said: “MJ did really well on Saturday against Biggleswade and has generally impressed us with his performances since he had a proper run in the team of late, so it’s great to get him signed up for next season too.”
Semahimbo’s elevation into Valley’s starting line-up came following the departure of Danico Johnson, with striker’s four-year-long Town association coming to an end after his arrival at Southern League Premier Nuneaton Borough was confirmed last week.
Rugby’s clash with Rothwell takes place on Saturday, April 2 with kick-off at 3pm at Sergeants Lawn.
