MALVERN TOWN 1, ETTINGSHALL HT 4

AFTER the excitement of Town's Senior urn success, the Banks's season came to an anti-climatic halt at home to Ettingshall on Saturday.

However at half time Malvern looked the side more likely to end the season with a win.

They had generally controlled the first half without ever really looking in top gear and when Mick Lowe's far post cross was headed back across the goal by Adam Ward, John Wade was on hand to tap the ball in from close range and up until this point the visitors had rarely threatened.

However the second period could not have been more different and 16 year old substitute goalkeeper Barry McClean, on his first team debut, found himself picking the ball out of the net after only two minutes of the re-start after Town needlessly lost possession on the edge of the Ettingshall box and the ball was quickly played forward for a visiting striker to break clear and rifle home the equaliser.

The real drama though came ten minutes later, when an Ettingshall players was clearly in an offside position, a fact recognised by the linesman who flagged for the decision. Not for the firs time during the afternoon the referee was unaware of the linesman's actions and as the ball was played into the Town penalty it appeared to be safely gathered by the young Town keeper.

At this point the linesman put his flag down, only for the ball to squirm from McClean's grasp and fall invitingly to the 'offside' player, who had the simplest of chances to put his side ahead.

Not surprisingly, mayhem ensued, but the referee refused to talk to his linesman who in turn was not prepared to revert to this original decision.

From hereon in Town lost their way and the visitors rattled in two more goals to complete a miserable afternoon for Town.

Malvern Town: Sanders (McClean), Cotterill, Lowe, Walker, D Wade, Maidment, Whittal-Williams, Ward, J Wade, Hadley (Perrins), Ashby, (Bastock).

The previous Thursday, just 48 hours after the Urn Final, a severely depleted Town side went out of the Bob Biggart Memorial Trophy when they lost 3-0 at home to Cheltenham Saracens.