WOLVERHAMPTON CASUALS 1, MALVERN TOWN 0

MALVERN Town's visit to Wolverhampton Casuals on Saturday in this Banks's Brewery Premier League fixture saw the Town play half the game with nine men.

First Andy Shepherd was sent off for a second bookable offence, and then on 50 minutes Steve Walker went for a 50-50 ball with two Casuals players and immediately, to everyone's amazement, was shown a straight red card for supposedly punching an opponent.

Malvern had most of the play up to Shepherd's dismissal and could have had a healthy lead by then because on nine minutes Shepherd broke through but, with only the keeper to beat, fired wide of a gaping goal, and then on 30 minutes only a superb save by home keeper Steve Booth prevented Dene Whittal-Williams from finding the net.

Sandwiched in between these two chances however Malvern were lucky not to concede when an unusual mistake by the reliable Ross Sanders in the Town's goal went unpunished after he miskicked a clearance straight to the feet of Neil Jones but somehow he screwed his effort wide of an open goal.

Losing Shepherd was bad enough but once Walker had gone Malvern had a mountain to climb, but to be fair the remaining nine men did a tremendous job to hold out until the fifth minute of time added on when, following a Malvern attack breaking down, Neil Jones was left unmarked to find the corner of the net giving Sanders no chance.

This was unfortunate because Malvern had worked so hard for a point they richly deserved.