We make the 4th of our 5 successive away games, with a trip to Rugby Town on Saturday.

After Tuesdays defeat at Boldmere St Michaels, any lingering hopes of making a late push for a playoff position ended, whilst our hosts Rugby Town are once again down towards the foot of the table after getting a reprieve last season from relegation.

OPPOSITION
The Valley are managed by Grant Joshua, who was appointed last May, after previously being in charge at Coleshill Town.
They play their home games at Butlin Road, with a capacity of 6,000, including 500 seats.
Rugby's home colours are sky blue shirts with white shorts.

Sitting in 21st position, Rugby have won 9 games so far this season, losing 19, accumulating 33 points from 34 games.

Their home record stands at 5 wins, 10 defeats and just 1 draw this season - that was against bottom-placed St Neots Town.

FORM
Since beating Lichfield City 3-2 on 24th January, Rugby have lost 6 of their last 7 games, picking up just 1 point, that was a 2-2 draw at St Neots Town on 28th February.
They have also failed to score in 4 of their last 6 games.

The Blues sit just above Rugby in the form table. Our current run of no wins in 8 games is our longest winless run since the end of the 23/24 season, when we had a 12 game winless run in step 3.
We will be hoping for a first win in 9 attempts, a run which stretches back to a 3-1 victory over Rushden & Diamonds on 24th January. Our last away win was almost 2 months ago - on 17th January at Racing Club Warwick. Since then, we have lost 4 and drawn 1 of our 5 away league games, scoring just 3 times in the process.

PREVIOUS MEETINGS
Rugby Town will be looking to do the league double over The Blues, having took the 3 points home with them when we last met on November 1st. A last minute Caine Elliott goal sealed a 3-2 win for The Valley. We had fought back from conceding 2 early goals, with Owen Betts and Evan Garnett pulling us level - all those 4 goals were score in the opening 38 minutes.
Rugby have failed to win away from home since their trip to Grange Park 4 months ago.

Our last trip to Butlin Road was almost exactly a year ago on March 29th 2025. We raced into a 3-goal lead in the first 30 minutes, before The Valley pegged back the deficit to 2-3 before half-time. Captain Andrew Wright, and a late Owen Betts strike, his second of the game, sealed the 3 points for us, with an emphatic 5-2 victory.

In the reverse fixture last season, in an eventful game at Grange Park in November 2024, Rugby scored a late equaliser against a resolute Blues. We played for just over an hour with 10 men, following Lewis Kings red-card. Callum Cocks had put us ahead early on, but with Owen Betts stepping into goal, Rugby failed to beat our makeshift last line of defence, until a late penalty, ensured the points were shared.

ADMISSION
Butlin Road is around a 20 minute walk from the Train Station, alternatively a taxi will take approximately 5 minutes.
For SatNav users, use CV21 3SD

Admission prices:
£10 Adult
£5 Concessions (over 65)
£5 Under 18's (12-17)
£2 Under 12's

Thank you to everyone who is making the trip to support the team at Rugby on Saturday. Your support is very much appreciated.

#YouBlues