MALVERN Town suffered a third successive home defeat when they went down 2-1 to Shawbury United on Saturday.

MALVERN TOWN 1, SHAWBURY UNITED 2

The defeat means Town look to have blown any chance of securing a runners-up spot in the Express & Star West Midlands League Premier Division.

The visitors, who set their stall out with continued use of the offside trap, took the lead from the penalty spot after 20 minutes.

Moments earlier Town goalkeeper Dave Alden had been awarded a free kick after being flattened by a Shawbury forward.

The same thing appeared to have happened again but on this occasion the game was allowed to continue and in the confusion Dave Cannon was adjudged to have impeded a Shawbury player. The resultant penalty was tucked away.

The second period saw Town exert themselves far more and it was no surprise when Des Cox reacted quickly to a Rik Halion drive that came back off the visiting goalkeeper, to secure his side a 65th minute equaliser.

Town were now clearly in the driving seat, although the visitors were always dangerous on the break and spurned a couple of decent chances.

The deciding 75th minute goal proved controversial.

With Town pushing forward, a Shawbury forward appeared to be offside but the linesman, who up until this point had been zealous in his interpretation of the offside rule, kept his flag down, and the visiting player was left clean through to score the decisive goal.

Town laid siege to the Shawbury goal during the remaining minutes but despite good efforts from Halion and substitute Billy Davis, Malvern failed to secure an equaliser on what proved to be a bitterly disappointing afternoon.