6/4/02 - Town defeated in derby battle

LEDBURY TOWN 2, MALVERN TOWN 1

Ironically, the game hinged on the substitution of Ledbury's prolific goalscorer Robbie Colwell and the introduction of ex-Malvern striker Duncan Preedy.

Colwell, clearly carrying an injury, was largely anonymous during the hour he played, as it was Malvern who generally held the upper hand.

Good football was difficult with the combination of a hard pitch and high wind, but the visitors started the most cohesive of the two sides, but they too suffered a set back when their leading scorer Lee Hooper was carried off after five minutes with a knee injury.

Chris Thomas replaced him and his pace was constant thorn in the side of the Ledbury defence as twice Thomas broke free, but in one on on situations, finished poorly.

His strike partner Dean Roberts and the midfield promptings of Ricky Halion, were also evident in most of Malverns attacking moves.

Malvern took the lead after fifty minutes, when Thomas turned sharply on the edge of the box and volleyed home, almost straight after this Adam Ward , blazed over when well placed, as he struggled to get on top the lively ball.

But following Colwell's withdrawal, Preedy's pace started to disturb the Malvern defence and in the 68th minute he sprang the offside trap to equalise.

Tempers now became a little frayed and Malvern began to lose a little discipline about their play and when Sean Cotterill gave a needless free kick away on the edge of the box in the 75th minute, they were severely punished as the ball was floated beyond the despairing Dave Alden and into the top left hand corner of his goal by Stuart Hall.

In the final ten minutes Malvern exerted some heavy pressure on the Ledbury goal and in one last ditch frantic scramble, Lee Williams, saw his header come back off the crossbar and from the rebound Dean Roberts seemingly goal bound volley was brilliantly blocked on the line, which denied Malvern a point.