MALVERN Town manager Joe Rawle believes it will be results against lower-ranked sides that will determine his side’s chances of British Gas Business Division One Midlands survival.

Town won their first league match of the season last Saturday when Ryan Wood scored a late winner to beat Arlesey Town 2-1.

The result lifted Malvern off the bottom of the table and has filled the team with confidence ahead of a tough-looking home match against Nuneaton Town on Saturday (2pm).

Rawle knows his team face a difficult test against the Warwickshire outfit but insists it is more important that they beat their fellow strugglers.

He said: “We have got to target the teams around us and get as many points as we can off them. Nuneaton are going to be a stiff task but that’s something we are going to have to put up with.

“We can compete with the clubs in and around us and we need to finish top of that heap.

“We had a good result on Saturday and deserved it as well. It just takes the pressure off everybody but it would be nice to get a win at home.

“It’s a confidence-booster because it shows the players they can compete. We won’t get carried away with last weekend.”

Malvern will be without Jamie Hyde for at least four weeks after the midfielder sustained a fractured eye socket.

Hyde thought he had suffered concussion in the GX Cup defeat against Cirencester on October 18 but a scan revealed the fracture.