WITH just three games remaining, Rugby Town’s first ever season in the Midland League Premier Division is nearing its conclusion.
The first of this final trio of fixtures sees Valley embark upon their longest trip of the campaign on Saturday, when they make the 180-mile round journey to Herefordshire to take on Westfields.
This is followed by Town’s last away match of the term next Thursday when they make the short trip over the Warwickshire border where they will hopefully fulfil the fixture against Coventry United at the fourth time of asking.
Rugby then wrap up their season next Saturday when they host Loughborough University at Butlin Road.
Town travel to Westfields on the back of a 3-2 home victory over Shepshed Dynamo at the weekend, when goals from David Kolodynski, Stuart Hendrie and Sam Belcher made it four wins from the last five home games.
Kolodynski’s strike extended the gap between him and Ruben Wiggins-Thomas to three in the battle for the club’s golden boot while Hendrie’s successful header represented his fifth goal in the last five matches – coming on the back of a barren initial 14 appearances by him in a Rugby shirt.
This Saturday’s opponents recorded a 2-1 win in the reverse fixture five weeks ago with Fields’ Craig Jones scoring either side of half-time to overturn the early lead given to Valley by Kolodynski.
Kolodynski was also on target in Town’s only previous trip to Allpay Park, when Rugby came out on top 2-0 in an FA Cup preliminary round tie in August 2014.
Seb Lake-Gaskin was the other player on the scoresheet that day.
Town’s end of season run-in is relatively leisurely compared to some of the other teams in their division.
Rugby are enjoying a seven-day break between Saturday’s victory over Shepshed and the Westfields outing.
By Saturday, though, Westfields will have played on Tuesday evening and tonight (Thursday) as they complete an away and home doubleheader over Shepshed themselves.
Coventry United’s schedule is even more hectic, and when the two sides face up at the Butts Park Arena next week, it will be United’s fourth game in just over five full days – as part of a crazy run-in which will see them play 12 times in 24 days.
The originally scheduled game between Coventry and Rugby was postponed due to the home side’s extended participation in the FA Vase, with subsequent fixtures ruled out because of snow and then a waterlogged pitch respectively.
