MALVERN Town's bid for a top three Banks Brewery League Premier Division place, suffered a serious blow when they slipped to defeat at second placed Warley Rangers on Saturday.

WARLEY RANGERS 4, MALVERN TOWN 2

Things looked good for Town when Andy Shepherd got on the end of an Adam Higgins through ball to put Town in front in only the 7th minute, but poor

defending allowed Warley back into the game, as strikes in the 12th and 17th minutes put the home side in front.

Constantly troubled by Warley's pace going forward, things might have got worse for Town, but they held on without further damage and when Shepherd

headed his second goal, following Martin Phillpotts excellent cross in the 40th minute, things started to look more promising for Malvern.

At the start of the second half and with a strong wind behind them, Malvern might have been expected to take the game to their hosts, but instead it was

the free scoring home side who penned Town back and restored their lead, courtesy of a superb volley in the 53rd minute.

Although Warley continued to look dangerous on the break, this heralded Malvern's best spell of the game and Shepherd just missed out on a hat trick

when his 68th chip narrowly cleared the crossbar, five minutes later Dene Whittal -Williams surged into the box, only to be denied by an excellent save from the Warley 'keeper.

However, Town could find not find the elusive equaliser and it was the home side who secured victory with a fourth goal in the 78th minute.

Raj Sharma lost possession in his own half and the resultant cross was dropped by Malvern 'keeper Ross Sanders, to present Warley with the simplest of opportunities to secure three vital points.

Town Assistant Manager Richard Anson said, "we were disappointed with our performance.We failed to capitalise on an excellent start and having hauled

ourselves back into the game after being on the rack for twenty minutes or so, we failed to get out of the blocks at the start of the second half and paid a heavy price for not doing so."

Malvern Town: Sanders, Higgins, Walker, Cotterill, Davies, Sharma, Brooks (Ward), Whittal-Williams, Phillpotts, Shepherd, Slade. Subs (not used) Damore, Clayton.