THE Cup dream now over Malvern returned to the grind of a tricky Midlands Two West league fixture against fifth placed Sutton, who had not lost since they visited Malvern late last year.

In a dour afternoon the rugby may not have been classic, but Malvern scraped home to win by a try and two penalty goals to a try.

Making two changes enforced by the mounting injury list, Malvern started playing against the stiff breeze coming under immediate Sutton pressure.

From the start it was obvious that the home side were going to attack through the fringes of the tight, and rush up to hurry the Malvern midfield in defence. Malvern rebuffed this pressure and soon set up good position for themselves.

New transfer from Bromsgrove, Derek Livermore showed good speed around the field with Kristoffersen coming close in one move. Moments later wing Hughes should have scored, but lost the ball in his dive for line. He then made amends as he burst through the line, to feed the flying Danish international Kristoffersen who went over for the score.

Sutton were kept well at bay by the boot of Andy Longley, but Malvern could and should have scored more, but their finishing just isn't as clinical as it could be, and chances slipped by.

Half time saw Malvern regroup and exert the early pressure, reward came as Longley converted a short range effort, soon followed by another and all looked comfortable until the last 15 minutes.

Sutton worked well through their forwards in the line out and whilst Malvern had several chances to clear their lines the ball stayed locked within their 22 yard line. Finally, a line out close to the Malvern line saw a catch, drive and try for Jones. The conversion as did two other goal attempts went wide as Malvern rode their luck.

Then disaster beckoned as fly half Gareth Richards was sinbinned, and Sutton's driving game moved towards Malvern's line. Fortunately, cool heads prevailed as Malvern rode out five full minutes of injury time.

Director of Rugby Dave Robins was a relieved man at the end of the match commenting: "In the away fixtures, it's the result rather than the performance that counts."

Tomorrow (Saturday) Malvern play Derby at Spring Lane.