MALVERN Town moved into the third round of the Smedley Crooke Memorial Charity Cup with a comfortable 4-1 success at home to Alveston last night.

On a bitterly cold, misty evening Town were very slow in getting out of the blocks and defender Pete Roberts had to leave the field after only 11 minutes with a nasty cut to the head which required hospital treatment.

Three minutes later a catalogue of errors led to Alveston taking the lead.

But this was the tonic Town needed to get their act together, and Lee Hooper levelled with an excellent shot from the edge of the box in the 36th minute.

Following strong half-time words from manager Neil Hunt, Malvern went up a another gear at the start of the second period and made the game safe within five minutes of the restart.

Luke Willetts brushed aside his marker to place the ball expertly past the advancing 'keeper and in the 49th minute the Alveston custodian could only parry an Adam Baldwin effort and Steve Walker reacted quickly to slide the ball home from an acute angle.

Top scorer Scott Morris wrapped things up in the 81st minute, when he headed home a Hooper cross to register his 16th strike of the season.