MALVERN Town's rich vein of form continued, as they moved into the semi-finals of the Worcester Royal Infirmary Cup, thanks to an excellent 4-2 home success.

MALVERN TOWN 4, Worcester City 2

Town defeated a Worcester City side containing several first team squad players, including Mark Owen, Asa Charlton, Liam Mcdonald, Duncan Willetts and goalkeeper Paul Wyatt.

Town's success in front of a decent crowd at a bitterly cold Langland Stadium was no more than they deserved.

Although City controlled the game territorially during the first 20 minutes, it was Town's Rick Halion who came closest to breaking the deadlock, when his header was cleared off the line.

When Town made a tactical switch by moving Billy Davis up alongside Dean Roberts, the change paid immediate dividends. Roberts set up Davis, who drove the ball home confidently to secure his side a 22nd minute lead.

This was the cue for a spell of sustained Town pressure, and Charlton was fortunate not to receive a red card, when he hauled Davis down when he was clean through on goal.

But it was the start of the second half when Malvern really started to up the tempo and when Halion's superb through ball split the City defence, it was Davis, who this time escaped yet another attempt by the flagging Charlton to haul him down, to again finish confidently to secure his side's crucial second goal in the 53rd minute.

Malvern's third goal was not long in arriving, and Davis was once more at the heart of things, this time squaring the ball to Roberts who missed his kick in front of a gaping goal, but was fortunate to see the ball fall to Chris Palmer who had the simple job of slotting home from point blank range.

With Town now 3-0 up and with nearly 30 minutes left to play, a big score seemed on the cards, but when a Town move broke down in the Worcester penalty area, the visitors broke quickly to secure a 65th minute lifeline.

City upped the pace and when a corner was only half cleared Worcester reduced the deficit to 3-2, with 20 minutes still to play.

But Malvern to their credit, came back to score the best goal of the game in the 78th minute. A fine interchange of passing enabled Palmer to deliver an excellent cross, which was met by the diving Roberts who headed powerfully past the despairing Wyatt, to secure his side's semi-final passage.