MALVERN Town made the long journey to Stoke on Trent on Saturday and returned home with a Travel Factory Midland Alliance point after a hard-fought draw.

BIDDULPH VICTORIA 2 MALVERN TOWN 2

Malvern were without seven first team regulars and drafted in Wesley Joyce to booster their depleted forward line.

Malvern started slowly and Biddulph, with the downward slope in their favour, dominated the game. Craig Heaney had to clear the ball off the line in the 10th minute and four minutes later the ball was again cleared off the line after Moss had only parried a shot from Steve Gunby. However, Biddulph took the lead in the 15th minute when a corner was knocked in by Andy Bourne.

In the 40th minute Adam Moss prevented Biddulph from increasing the lead when he deflected a certain goal over the bar for a corner.

At the start of the second period Adam Moss collected the ball and kicked it three quarters the length of the pitch for Wes Joyce to run onto and he delightfully lobbed the goalkeeper Steve Intihar to equalise.

Play was restricted to the middle of the park for long spells although Richard Tomkins brought out a good save from Intihar ten minutes from the end. Five minutes from time, just as it looked as though the game was heading for a draw, a suicidal back pass by the Malvern defence was intercepted by Steve Gunby and Craig Heaney's tackle was adjudged unfair by the referee, who awarded Biddulph a penalty which Neil Pestridge duly slotted home.

Malvern refused to give up the fight and in the last minute a long throw in by Andy Chalmers was headed on and Wes Joyce was at the back post to knock it in from close range.

MALVERN TOWN 4, ALVECHURCH 1

TOWN welcomed back Nathan Jukes, Nick Clayton, Darren Bullock and Des Cox for Tuesday's Midland Alliance game at Langland Stadium.

Malvern started strongly but it was Alverchurch who had the first clear cut chance to open the scoring when Brett Fitzpatrick outstripped the Malvern defence only to fire wide of the post. However Malvern broke the deadlock on 15 minutes when Wesley Joyce fired home an unstoppable shot into the corner of the net.

Malvern increased their lead just before half-time when Darren Bullock's 25-yard free kick flew into the top corner.

Five minutes into the second half Malvern went 3-0 up when a mix-up in the Alverchurch defence let Joyce through to draw the keeper and slot home his second. This spurred the visitors into action and they pulled a goal back through a brilliant strike from the impressive Keith Rostill, which went in of the underside of the bar from 20 yards.

Malvern had the last say and put the result beyond doubt when a through ball from Halion found Nathan Jukes free to slot home from 15 yards.