MALVERN Town maintained their Express and Star West Midlands League Premier Division title challenge with this comfortable success at home to Dudley Town at the Langland Stadium on Saturday.

MALVERN TOWN 5, DUDLEY TOWN 2

The afternoon started brightly for Malvern, when as early as the fourth minute a Rik Halion shot cannoned back off the crossbar, but Scott Morris was on hand to volley home the rebound.

Dudley responded immediately when a free kick on the edge of the box took a high deflection resulting in a looping header which came back off the crossbar, only for the loose ball to be volleyed home in almost identical fashion to Morris's strike just two minutes earlier.

Malvern created sufficient chances to extend their lead and it was no surprise when they did just that in the 31st minute.

Nathan Jukes was the architect when his quick crossfield free kick expertly picked out Phil Preedy and the Town winger advanced into the box to firmly plant his shot past the Dudley goalkeeper.

But Malvern again failed to hold onto their lead as they were once again wrong-footed by a wicked deflection which fell straight into path of a Dudley striker who placed the ball comfortably beyond Town keeper Dave Alden, to secure his sides equaliser just three minutes before the break.

The start of the second half saw Dudley threaten Alden's goal on more than one occasion and Andy Chalmers rescued Malvern with a brilliant 54th minute goaline clearance.

But Town responded when Morris's point blank header was well held by the Dudley 'keeper and Dean Roberts and Des Cox saw a goalbound efforts blocked.

However, in the 59th minute the game swung dramatically in Malvern's favour. In pursuit of a through ball Roberts collided with the Dudley keeper who injured himself In the process, the challenge earnt Roberts a yellow card.

Two minutes later the goalkeeper found himself in a one-on-one situation with Morris and clearly not relishing the prospect of another collision Morris took advantage to slip the ball past him. Just as he was about to put the ball into an empty net, was upended by a Dudley defender who was promptly show a red card.

Jukes comfortably converted the spot kick.

From then on Town were dominant and in the 65th minute, Phil Preedy outpaced the visiting defence to finish superbly and Cox added Town's fifth when he rose highest to head home Preedy's corner in the 73rd minute.

- Malvern are still waiting to see if they will go through to the league cup final after their second leg semi-final on Tuesday was postponed.

The league is investigating a possible problem with the Tividale team sheet from the first leg.