Title-chasing Rugby Town notched three more valuable points towards their quest with their first-ever victory at Chestnut Avenue but they left it until late to secure the victory. The visitors looked sharper from the start and dominated much of the first half. Fazel Koriya caused plenty of damage with his attacking runs, cutting in from the left-flank but the Woods looked solid in the centre of defence and James Reading was out to smother a couple of dangerous crosses.

But Northwood were dealt a severe blow after 22 minutes when they lost top scorer Oliver Hawkins to a back injury with Niko Muir, himself on the bench as he was carrying a knock, his replacement. Within a minute, Rugby were almost in front as ace striker David Kolodynski was put through on goal and blasted a shot past Reading only to see it crash back off the bar. The rebound ran kindly back to him but Reece Yorke dived in to get to the loose ball first and it the danger was cleared.

It was still all one-way with Reading saving comfortably from Sam Youngs and then Kolodynski volleyed well wide after a good flowing move involving both Koriya and Youngs. The visitors finally grabbed the lead their dominance deserved after 31 minutes but it was a controversial one as Kolodynski looked well offside when racing onto a through-ball from Lewis McBride down the right and squaring for Koriya to sweep home unmarked. The assistant referee had decided that he had been played onside by Adil Salih on the other side of the park.

There was little improvement for Northwood up until half-time as Rugby continued to press, firstly with Reading pushing a Youngs effort wide of the post and Hewitt blocking a goalbound strike from Richard Blythe. If the Woods were to have any chance of salvaging the game, they needed to improve their performance in the second-half and they started brightly, with Jerome Federico bursting past his marker and forcing a corner. From that, knocked in by Federico, Lee Grant went close with a header which was blocked on the line by a defender.

Rugby showed how dangerous they would still be though by breaking from that quickly through Koriya who crossed to Kolodynski whose effort this time was pushed wide by Reading. Reading was enjoying a fine game and continued to keep the Woods in the game, making stops from Blythe and Kolodynski again, while Alex Gudger’s header skimmed the crossbar  but still Northwood were unable to cause the Valley too much trouble at the other end.

When Kolodynski hit the crossbar again on 74 minutes there was some thought that it might have been one of those days for Rugby but they were not to be denied and Youngs picked up a ball from Koriya with plenty of space and turned to fire home a second goal.

In the first minute of stoppage-time, the visitors adding a finish touch to a good performance when full-back Ellis Myers scored with a long-range left-foot strike which flew into the top corner.