RUGBY TOWN head into the New Year in fine form after securing their seventh straight league win with a 3-0 victory over Easington Sports at Butlin Road.
Justin Marsden, Madundo Semahimbo and Adam Shaw all struck to ensure Valley ended the calendar year having lost just once in their last 14 matches.
The result means Rugby finish the year in fifth place in the United Counties League Premier Division South table – 10 points behind leaders Hinckley LRFC.
Rugby’s victory over Easington was a straightforward affair, although they did have to wait until the final couple of minutes of the first half for their opening goal which came when the returning Marsden smashed home from a tight angle after David Kolodynski had done well to set him up.
The visitors rarely troubled Carl Adams’s side throughout, and once Semahimbo had doubled the hosts’ advantage on 66 minutes with a neck-twisting header, the result was never in doubt.
Substitute Shaw rounded off the win with a superb lofted volley from Josh Thomas’s through ball on a day when only three of their division’s scheduled games survived both the recent wet weather and impact of Covid.
Rugby will visit a Coventry Sphinx side in their next outing, whose form has dipped a little of late, although they did join Town in the final 32 of the Vase with their third round home victory over Coventry United three weeks ago.
Their city rivals gained immediate revenge over Sphinx on Tuesday though with a 2-1 win that kept United one place ahead of Valley on goal difference from the same games played, with Hinckley, Harborough and Newport Pagnell still occupying the top three spots.
Adams should have Max Johnson back in the fold for Monday’s game after the in-form midfielder sat out the Easington game having totted up five league bookings, although Alex Lock will again miss out as he serves the second of his three match ban for his red card at Lutterworth.
Rugby’s match with Coventry takes place on Monday, January 3 with kick-off at 3pm at Sphinx Drive.
