RANGERS travelled to Great Barr on Saturday to play basement club Bustleholme Res in the Express & Star Division One South.

BUSTLEHOLME RES 2, MALVERN RANGERS 1

Without wishing to detract from the home side's victory, Rangers gave undoubtedly their worst performance of the season.

With two semi-finals looming just around the corner, Rangers will have put all the good work in the previous rounds to waste unless they improve quite considerably on this performance.

The home side took the game to Rangers and keeper Ross Sanders was called upon to make a couple of good saves. After ten minutes Rangers made their first real attack when Rob Perrins broke clear in on goal but instead of squaring to the unmarked Stuart Harvey he had his shot saved by keeper Matthew Shaw.

Just four minutes later and a repeat of the previous attack saw Perrins' shot saved by Shaw with Marc Lines waiting unmarked in the six yard box. After 33 minutes Perrins again broke away but his well struck shot was saved.

With just three minutes of the half remaining, Bustleholme broke down their left and the ball broke to centre forward Dean Jones to open the scoring.

The opening minutes of the second half saw Simon Rea screw his shot wide and shortly afterwards Chris Allen got into the area but failed to hit the target. After 15 minutes Ross Sanders made a great save but was beaten just three minutes later when Dean Jones struck a tremendous shot into the roof of the net from some distance.

Midway through the half the home side had a player sent off and Rangers were able to take up some initiative. On 34 minutes Rob Perrins' persistence took him into the penalty area where he was fouled. However, he blazed his spot kick over the crossbar.

Hayden Jordan and Richard Forde then combined to finally set up Rob Perrins to score with a well struck shot. Perrins' eventful afternoon was completed shortly afterwards when he was sent off, apparently for bad language.

Man of the Match Craig Penney.

Rangers, sponsored by Willie Thorne's Snooker Club, are due to host Leominster Town tomorrow (Saturday) in a league fixture, kick off 1.45pm, players meet ground 12.45pm prompt.