MALVERN Town have warmed up for their second qualifying round Carlsberg FA Vase tie with two successive wins and now hope to make it three in a row, which would secure a place for Town in the first round proper.

Standing in Town's way are Lincolnshire-based Blackstone United who play in the higher graded United Counties League Premier Division, but Blackstone have not made the best of starts to the season, currently they are just one place off the bottom, having secured their first victory only last Saturday, courtesy of a 1-0 win against bottom placed Bugbrooke.

Town though will be taking nothing for granted and are well aware of the anomalies that cup football can throw up.

Town assistant manger Richard Anson said: "We have no cause to be complacent about any game, we are now only just starting to get things going this season and a run in the Vase stimulates interest right through the club and the town.

"We saw this when we had a little run a couple of years ago and this season we are determined to better that."

Town boss Joey Rawle, has virtually a full squad to pick from, with the exception of Matt Upton and whose work commitments might continue to prevent him from playing and Andy Shepherd who has again made himself unavailable this weekend and then faces a five week suspension for getting sent off in a pre season friendly for his Sunday side.

Unhappy

Anson said: "To say we are unhappy is an understatement, we went to a huge amount of trouble to get Andy's 84 day suspension reduced to just 10 days this season, but he failed to make himself available last week and has now got another problem this Saturday, on top of which he has also got himself suspended for five weeks for getting sent off in a meaningless game during the summer.

"In addition to missing last week, he will now miss the next six weeks of a season at it's most important stage and we have no choice now but to try and sign at least one, if not two new strikers and if there is no place for him in the team when he returns, then that is a problem he has simply created for himself.

"We have gone out on a limb for Andy over the past couple of years, but he just can't see it, which is a great shame because he has got a lot of talent which he is grave danger of wasting."

"We rarely talk about individual players in the Press, but I am getting fed up with trying to justify Andy's ever increasing absenteeism and supporters have a right to know what is going on."

However there is better news for Town as Nick Clayton, Sean Davies and Neil Mogford, all of whom missed last Saturday's 4-0 win over Gornal come back into the reckoning.

Rawle will therefore select from: Alden, Dugdale, Higgins, Cotterill, Damore, Davies, Clayton, Westmacott, Ward, Holmans, Thomas, Walker, Gore, Upton, Mogford, Hooper and Brooks.

This match kicks off at 3pm and not 2.45pm as in the Express and Star League.

Admission for this game will be £3 adults and £2 senior citizens and children. These are the minimum charges applied by the FA.

Any replay will take place at Blackstone on Tuesday (7.45pm), which would also mean the postponement of Town's trip to Lye Town on Wednesday.

Saturday's match ball sponsor will be Tom McCollum.