MALVERN Town visit bottom placed Walsall Wood in the Express and Star West Midlands League Premier Division tomorrow (Saturday) and will be hoping for another three points that will keep them amongst the leading sides.

Town have few selection problems, although Craig Williams is still a likely absentee with a knee injury and Billy Davis is probably a couple of weeks away from returning.

The other main focus of attention surrounds Grant Pinkney, who was outstanding on his debut during last Saturday's victory at Wolverhampton United.

Town hope that he will commit himself to Malvern for the rest of the season.

Town are not taking things for granted on Saturday and although Walsall Wood are perennial strugglers, they can sometimes have a habit of upsetting the form book, as they proved last week by taking a point off title favourites Westfields.

Town boss Neil Hunt said: "We know that Saturday's game might not be as straightforward as it looks, their playing surface can be difficult and we might change the shape of the side a little bit to help overcome this.

"The most important thing though, is getting the three points, with fourteen games to go that has to be the objective from every game from now on in."

Certainly, Saturday's match is crucial for Town as they sit 12 points behind leaders Tipton with four games in hand but, critically, they are eleven points behind second placed Westfields and have played the same number of games.

Anson continued: "There is all sorts of rumours going around at the moment about ground gradings, and it might be that second place could be good enough to go up. We have an inspection due soon by Alliance officials and whilst we know that we have work to do, it might not be to the same extent as some of our rivals."

For the trip to Walsall Town Hunt will select from the following: Watson, Cannon, Taylor, Clayton, Williams, Palmer, Walker, Walton, Halion, Pinkney, Owen, Johnson, Cox, Willetts, Roberts, Chalmers and Hooper.

Town have no midweek fixture.

Reserves

WHILST the first team have embarked on a run that has seen them take 37 points from their last 14 games, the Town Reserves have now been defeated just twice in their last 11 games.

The two defeats came against Express and Star West Midlands League Division 1 (S) championship favourites Bewdley Town.

This has marked an excellent turnaround for managers Dave Oakley and Paul Pallet's young side, who last week fired five goals past Ludlow Town Reserves in a 5-1 win at the Langland Stadium.

The Town scorers were Tom Drewe, Mike Cole, Jamie Thomas, Richard Jones and Craig Oakley, the oldest of this quintet being the 'veteran' Oakley, who is just 20.

Tomorrow (Saturday) the Reserves continue their quest for a top six finish, with a home game against Mahal (2.45pm).

Semi-final

THE Town U18s were at home to Alvechurch in the Midland Youth League last Tuesday and recorded a 3-2 success, despite being 2-0 down at one stage.

The Town goalscorers were Dale Humphries (two) and Mike Cole.

The coming week is a busy one for the Town youngsters, as they visit Evesham on Monday night in a league fixture (7.30pm) and on Thursday visit Sutton Coldfield Town in the semi-final of the WFA County Youth Cup (7.30pm).

Town's ability to continue to develop young talent is not just reflected in their rapidly improving Reserve side, but again by the fact that five players have been selected for this Sunday's Midland Youth Championship match against Northamptonshire at Raunds Town.

The players selected are: Sam Gwilliam, Dean Matthews, Steve Thomas, Mike Cole and Oliver Endacott.