MALVERN Town returned from Kington on Tuesday night having recorded an excellent 2-1 Banks's Brewery League Premier Division success.

KINGTON TOWN 1, MALVERN TOWN 2

Honours were fairly even during the opening period, during which two frantic scrambles at either end denied first Kington and then Malvern the lead, indeed most observers felt that Phil Slade's final touch had crossed the line by some distance.

But it was the home side who struck first after 30 minutes, when they fired home a free kick after Sean Cotterill was adjudged to have pushed veteran forward Gary Stevens.

The second half saw Malvern adapt far better to the heavy conditions, with Slade and Andy Shepherd proving a constant thorn in the home side's defence and Mark Brooks and Steve Walker working tirelessly in midfield.

Their deserved equaliser came in the 58th minute. Shepherd was pulled back on the edge of the area and from a virtual identical position from which the home side had profited in the first half, Walker slipped the ball past the defensive wall and into the bottom right hand corner of the net.

From then on it was all Malvern as efforts from Brooks, Chris Thomas and Shepherd all went close.

During this period, their best opportunity fell to Slade who, in a one-on-one situation, was denied by an excellent save from the Kington keeper.

Malvern's winner came in the 70th minute and the scorer was the unlikely source of full back Adam Higgins who ghosted in at the far post to steer the ball home after good approach play from Shepherd and Slade.

Kington might have snatched a draw, but were denied by an excellent last ditch block by Dave Damore who, alongside the dominant Cotterill, impressed once more at the heart of the Malvern defence.

Malvern Town: Sanders, Higgins, Clayton, Cotterill, Damore,Sharma (Maidment), Walker, Brooks, Thomas (Phillpotts), Shepherd, Slade.