LONGTON showed why they are unbeaten this season with a fine all-round display of open rugby in this Midlands One game at Spring Lane on Saturday.

MALVERN 5pts, LONGTON 43pts

From the first minute, when the Longton back row went on a rampaging run to set up a five metre scrum, the omens were not good for Malvern. Prolific stand-off Tony Wheat missed a second minute penalty, but sustained pressure saw inside centre Simon Price cross the line in the fifth minute. Wheat converted.

Malvern encroached during the next Longton attack and in the 10th minute Wheat put over the penalty. The well-drilled Staffordshire side's set scrum had the home pack in all sorts of trouble, whilst Malvern's line out was messy, giving no platform from which to counter attack.

On the quarter hour mark, Wheat was on hand to run in on ther blind side for his try but missed the conversion.

It took Malvern until the 31st minute to get into the Longton 22 metre area, but the leaders defended robustly, keeping out drive after drive from Malvern, then ran the ball downfield for Price to grab his second try in the 36th minute, Wheat converting.

After the break, with Longton scrum half James Gabriel sin-binned, Malvern pressed but couldn't make the extra man advantage tell. Gabriel returned and scored from a 52nd minute five metre scrum, Wheat converted and Longton again had their tails up.

Gabriel and Wheat increased the lead on the hour as Malvern swapped Andy Ridley for Marc Gaubert and Tim Allies for James Daniell, the early loss of fly-half Richard Wylde having previously caused disruption in the home ranks. Longton continued remorselessly, shoved the Malvern pack back at a five metre scrum for flanker Paul Sheldon to score and Wheat to convert in the 72nd minute.

With five minutes left Malvern right wing Rob Young saved the whitewash, but the game ended with Longton, who celebrated their centenary this year, looking like a sure bet for promotion.

Coach Andy Cushing said: "They are the best side we have played this season, but we failed to get our tackles in and our scrum and line-out gave us no platform to set up attacks, so we had to feed off scraps. We must now ensure that we take full points from all our remaining home games and beat the lower sides away from home!"