MALVERN Town's winning streak came to an end on Saturday, but their last gasp draw was still enough to move them up to fifth place in the Express and Star West Midlands League Premier Division.

MALVERN TOWN 2, BUSTLEHOLME 2

Things looked bleak for Town when, after a lacklustre start, Nathan Granville fired Bustle-holme on front with a well taken goal after 25 minutes.

To be fair it was the visitors who always looked the likeliest side to take the lead as Malvern, for the first time in several weeks, lacked any fluency about their play and did not create a clear cut opening during the first half.

The second half saw Town improve slightly, and Rik Halion was unlucky to see his shot from the edge of the box come back off the crossbar.

But Malvern suffered a further blow on the hour mark, when a long ball out of defence found Granville, who had time and space to lob Melvyn Watson to put his side firmly in control.

Just two minutes later, Watson saved brilliantly from the same player to keep Town's hopes of getting something out of the game marginally intact.

Indeed Watson's save proved to be a turning point, when in the 65th minute Dean Roberts was upended in the area and the Town skipper responded by converting the resultant penalty for his 14th league goal of the season.

At long last Town now came to life and put the Bustleholme defence under intense pressure and only a remarkable double save from Bustleholme goalkeeper Neil Page prevented Roberts and then John Walton from equalising.

Further appeals for a penalty were turned down when Lee Goodman broke into the area and was sent tumbling to the ground.

But just when it looked as though Town would suffer a rare league defeat, a Chris Palmer corner deep into injury time, was only half cleared and the ball fell to Des Cox who converted from close range to earn his side a deserved point with his 11th league goal of the season.