Football
Town face busy schedule

Buy photos » Rugby Town will be without Nik Preston through suspension for the trip to Beworth. Picture by Martin Pulley.

DESPITE their comfortable 4-2 victory at home to North Greenford at the weekend, Rugby Town stayed tenth in Southern League Division One Midlands.

However, they do go into the busy festive period in good form with only one defeat in their last seven games, and a decent return from their three matches in eight days - starting with the short trip to Bedworth on Boxing Day - could see them narrow the gap between themselves and the play-off zone.

Town have now reached the halfway point of the league campaign in terms of fixtures played and despite a woeful couple of months in September and October, they are only five points shy of their total at the corresponding point of last season.

Valley assistant manager Martin Sockett reflected on the side’s latest success and also provided a broader perspective on the season to-date.

He said: “Overall it was a decent performance on Saturday. We did really well in the first half, had plenty of shots on target and scored three.

“Their penalty knocked us a bit and in the second half I thought we were a little too anxious in the search for a fourth.

“However once the goal it came, we could have had a couple more. It was disappointing to concede again late on though.”

“As Dave (Stringer) has said recently, there is a good togetherness and spirit around the club at the moment, and we’ve shown our character a few times with late goals to win or draw matches.

“Overall we’ve done okay so far this season. Hopefully we have got our bad patch out of the way and we can now kick on and challenge near the top of the table.”

The Boxing Day fixture (1pm kick-off) sees another return to the Oval for ex-Greenbacks boss Sockett, who was hoping for better fortunes than the New Year Bank Holiday game earlier in 2011.

He explained: “We absolutely hammered them there last season without scoring, and then they broke away in the last minute and won the game.

“We know it is going to be a competitive game and a typical local derby. They’ve got off to a great start and by the number of goals they have been banging in, they are clearly attack-minded, so I’m sure it will be a completely different game this time around.”

Bedworth are now managed by ex-Valley defender Steve Farmer - who joined them in the summer after a spell in charge of Nuneaton Griff.

The Greenbacks sit in third place in the table, although they missed the chance to close the gap on leaders Beaconsfield after a controversial 2-1 defeat at second placed Slough at the weekend.

They had taken the lead through another ex-Town man Ashley Robinson, before the same player was sent off ahead of two Slough strikes - the second of which was particularly contentious.

Stringer and Sockett will be without the services of the suspended Nik Preston for the Bedworth game though, with the Town skipper having racked up five cautions this season.

Sockett confirmed that they may bring in a defender on loan to cover for Preston’s absence, although they do also have the option of moving Gary Moran across from his normal full-back role to play alongside Ed Booth.

Midfielders Robbie Banks and Andy Gundelach returned to the squad against North Greenford after both players had sat out a number of games through injury. Banks made an appearance as a second half substitute and will be hoping for a starting place on Boxing Day.

However, on-loan Aaron James has returned to Nuneaton, and Town will also be without defender Alex Austin - with the student back home for the Christmas break - and the ill Ben Steane.

Town continue their festive fixture schedule with a trip to Barton Rovers on New Year’s Eve and complete it on Bank Holiday Monday (January 2) with a home game against Woodford - both games will kick-off at 3pm.