MALVERN Town cruised through to the semi-finals of the Worcestershire FA Senior Urn with a comfortable victory at Lye Town on Wednesday.

LYE TOWN 1, MALVERN TOWN 4

Without the services of captain Darren Bullock, Lee Tompkins and leading goalscorer Mark Owen, Malvern Town were still far too strong for their West Midland premier division hosts.

Burgess had a couple of early chances for Lye but shot over the bar and then headed wide when well-placed.

Malvern took the lead in the 30th minute when Duncan Preedy fired home a left-footed drive from 25-yards.

Lye goalkeeper Hampton kept his side in the game with two good saves from Mark Shepherd and then prevented what looked like a certain goal from Luke Whittington with another breath-taking save.

Although only leading 0-1, Malvern Town were well on top at the half-time break.

In the 57th minute, Malvern increased their lead when Whittington produced some clever play on the wing before crossing for Dean Roberts to score.

Roberts made it 0-3 12 minutes later with a fine individual goal.

Recent signing Mark Atkinson, a former Arsenal YTS player, made it 4-0 when he collected a good pass from Roberts, rounded his defender and fired beyond the keeper.

Lye grabbed a consolation goal in the 85th minute when Hadley ran through to score.

Malvern Town return to league duty tomorrow (Saturday) when they entertain Alvechurch (3pm) and on Tuesday, they visit Barwell (7.45pm).