MALVERN Town travelled to Southern League Premier Division side Halesowen Town in the FA Cup first qualifying round.

The visitors competed well and matched their higher-ranked opponents until a superb goal by Nick Wright on the hour swung the game to the home team.

Malvern earned corners early on and from one of these an appeal for handball was made but the referee deemed the player was putting his hands up to protect his face and waved play on.

In the 17th minute, a free-kick by Jamie Hyde was headed down by Neil Gardiner to Nick Clayton but his shot was saved by Halesowen keeper Chris Jay.

Play was going from end-to-end and Lewis Skyers saved from Liam McDonald a few minutes later.

Bryan Craven's 25 yard free-kick went wide for Malvern and Paul Devlin headed over following a cross by McDonald at the other end.

Halesowen took the lead in the 33rd minute when former Worcester midfielder McDonald placed a free-kick into the top right-hand corner.

In an entertaining game, both sides continued to press forward and Malvern were confident they could equalise against their nervy hosts in the second period.

However, it all changed on the hour when Wright jinked past Nick Clayton, ran into the area and slid the ball under the diving Skyers to get Halesowen's second.

The goal knocked the stuffing out of Malvern and before they could recover Halesowen scored a further two goals.

In the 63rd minute, Jay Denny scored from close range after good work by Duane Darby and Devlin.

Malvern made two substitutions who could only stand and watch as Devlin slotted home in the 66th minute.

The visitors regained their composure with Andrew Jones heading over and Craven shooting just off target.