RUGBY TOWN: Young Wolves just too strong

Birmingham Senior Cup Second Round

Rugby Town 0 Wolverhampton Wanderers 3

A youthful Wolves squad eased through to the next round of the local FA knockout competition on Tuesday evening, although Town did at least put up a decent showing against their full-time counterparts.

Rugby were unlucky not to have enjoyed some reward in front of goal for their efforts - especially from their bright first half performance, however the visitors stepped up a gear after the break and went on to clinically expose Valley’s back-line on three occasions.

As in the weekend game against Sheffield, the early chances once more fell to the hosts, with Chris Sterling’s shot across the face of the box tipped round for a corner by Wolves keeper Rory Brown and then David Kolodynski bundled a good opportunity just wide of the frame.

At the other end, Joe Delacoe’s shot from an angled position was taken at the second attempt by Dan Jezeph, with the Rugby keeper also doing well to catch a swerving free-kick from Dan Armstrong.

Leigh Phillips then struck the post with a shot from the edge of the area, with the ball rolling across the line after its impact with the upright, and Elliott Palmer headed Mitchell Thomson’s free-kick just over, whilst Armstrong again tested Jezeph with a strike from distance ahead of the interval.

Wolves went ahead on 52 minutes when the diminutive Brad Carr headed home Armstrong’s whipped-in cross from the left, although Rugby could have easily levelled things up shortly after when Mason Rowley’s header to another Thomson free-kick bounced agonisingly wide.

The visitors’ second goal came on the hour mark, when the ball fell kindly to Delacoe in the middle of Rugby’s half and with the hosts exposed and outnumbered, he ultimately rolled it across to Armstrong for a simple tap-in into an empty net.

Kolodynski, Thomson and Phillips all had half-chances for Town, before Wolves completed the scoring with five minutes of normal time remaining when their skipper Ross Finnie finished off another rapid move down the flanks by tapping home from close range.