Rugby Town 2–2 Shepshed Dynamo
My first football match of the 2024/25 season saw a much-improved display from the Valley
The summer breeze was fresh, and the setting sun made way for a rare moon to rise into the sky above Butlin Road. This was my first match of the new season, and it turned out to be a cracker.
A Rugby matchday tradition for me is going for a couple of pints in The Clinfton Inn, a pub located just around the corner from the ground. I happened to have a pint of Madri in a cracking new style glass, and the night was only getting started.
Rugby Town left it late last season to escape the drop, going on a brilliant run in April to avoid relegation by just goal difference. Keen to make sure they have a more comfortable campaign this time around, they’ve not started too badly.
The visit of Shepshed Dynamo produced a chance to make it two wins from three, and with an FA Cup First Qualifying Round match to look forward to at the end of the month. £10 entry and a great clubhouse with a good bar, I’ve come to enjoy semi-regular walks across town.
The wind whipped around the ground as the match kicked off, and Rugby looked to get on the front foot. Good set pieces were causing Shepshed some problems, and The Valley’s forwards were getting down the touchline and into the box almost every time they ventured past the halfway line. Despite the positive start, it was the visitors who had first the best chance — a 1 v 1 that was put over the bar, and then the opening goal.
Just short of the half-hour mark, a Shepshed effort was only half cleared and Rugby were slow to get out to the rebound. Kyle Dixon tucked the ball into the far corner and the lead was theirs, only slightly against the run of play. Half-time came and Rugby would have been wondering what they had done to deserve being behind- failing to convert chances will do that unfortunately.
The second half continued in a similar fashion, and just a few minutes in The Valley were on the scoresheet. Hilton Arthur, who had been a threat all night, put a lovely ball into the box and Trey Charles nodded in past the Shepshed keeper. Momentum firmly with the hosts now, so who was it who got the third goal? It was of course the visitors.
Less than five minutes later another break Rugby’s Harrison Nee blocked a cross with his hand in the box and the referee had an easy decision to make. Dixon picked up the ball, placed it on the spot, and despite the best efforts of Paul Hathaway in goal, fired Shepshed back in front.
The remaining 30 minutes were more one-way traffic from the hosts and as chances came and went, it felt as though Shepshed would hang on to make it back-to-back wins in the Northern Premier League Midlands Division. A stubborn defensive display was undone one more time in the dying embers of the night.
Deep into added time, the ball was thrown into the Shepshed box and Liam Francis headed the ball across goal. Charles was in the right place to get his head on the end of the ball and direct it into the back of the net via the underside of the crossbar. It was the least Rugby deserved, and on another night the hosts could have bagged 6 or 7.
Yet as it was Shedpshed took their chances and held firm to make sure it was honours even. A great night at Butlin Road and the Rugby performance was so much better than some of the displays I’d caught last season- things are looking up in the early stages of the 2024/25 campaign.
