RUGBY Town strengthened their chances of a top half finish in the Midland League Premier Division with four points from their two fixtures against higher placed sides.
Valley followed up on their 1-1 draw at Worcester City by overturning a one-goal deficit to defeat Sporting Khalsa on Tuesday night – with Stuart Hendrie on target in both matches to extend his recent scoring run to four goals in three matches.
Town now have just five games left to play this season, but the fixture pile-up elsewhere in the league has led the Midland League to grant a one-week extension to the term to allow teams extra time to complete their commitments.
This means that Rugby now travel to Coventry United – who are the furthest behind with 13 games still remaining – on Thursday, May 3 and they then host Loughborough University on Saturday, May 5 – a week on from the originally planned season end at Westfields on Saturday, April 28.
Town’s other two games see them welcoming Shepshed Dynamo to Butlin Road next weekend and visiting the Sports Ground this Saturday to face a Lye Town team currently 16th.
The two sides played out a 0-0 draw in the reverse fixture back at the end of November when midfielder Sam Belcher missed an early penalty for the Valley.
This weekend’s Black Country opponents also enjoyed victory on Tuesday evening with a 4-1 home success over AFC Wulfrunians – their first win in four attempts – but generally it has been a disappointing season for Lye, who have failed to build on eighth and fourth-placed finishes in 2015/16 and 2016/17 respectively.
Rugby are now level on points with seventh-placed Coventry Sphinx, although their local rivals have played two games fewer than Dave Stringer’s men, whilst below them Westfields, Coventry United, Heanor and Shepshed all also have a number of games in hand over Town.
