RUGBY TOWN: It's tight at the top as Valley take on title favourites Shepshed Dynamo

It certainly is a tight squeeze at the top of Rugby Town’s UCL Premier Division table, as the league campaign now enters its final three months.

Valley had regained momentum with a narrow 2-1 victory at Cogenhoe last Saturday following the disappointment of the home loss to fellow challengers Quorn seven days earlier.

Although they then slipped back a place to fourth after a midweek victory from title favourites Shepshed in one of their many games in hand saw them pull level with leaders Holbeach at the top.

Only the goals scored total now separate Holbeach and Shepshed, with Town travelling to the latter this Saturday for a crucial promotion battle.

Rugby go into the game two points behind the top two, with third-place Loughborough University sandwiched a point in between and Quorn and Deeping both still contention just below Carl Adams’s side. Adams said: “There’s certainly some big games coming up in the promotion race over the next few weeks.

“After our game at Shepshed, we only have two more fixtures against teams in the top six though, and both of those are at home - where we have generally been in good form.

“On the other hand, Holbeach and Shepshed have still got to play each other twice before the end of the season, and Loughborough have got a particularly tough run-in too.”

Kurtis Revan’s 87th minute winner secured Town victory at Cogenhoe, with Adams acknowledging it was not a straightforward affair against the fourth bottom hosts.

He continued: “We certainly made it hard work for ourselves but we got there in the end, which is the important thing at this time of the season.

“We missed too many good chances in the first half and then conceded a horrendous goal from a defensive perspective, which gave them a real boost going into the second half, but we kept plugging away and got the break we needed late on.”

Adams was without Charlie Evans after the versatile performer had twisted his ankle in training, but hopefully he should be returning to the fold at Dynamo.

Following Saturday’s trip to Leicestershire, Town host Harborough a week later, before completing February with a run of four away games - starting at Wellingborough on the 15th of the month.