Grosvenor Park 1, Malvern Town 2

a Thursday night call from last season's Midland Combination Premier Divi-sion champions Grosvenor Park, saw Malvern Town take on the newly promoted Midlands Alliance outfit at the Birmingham Civil Ser-vice Sports Ground.

Town were originally due to start their pre-season programme next Saturday but this unexpected game proved to be a worthwhile exercise as they ran out 2-1 winners thanks to goals from new signing Billy Davis and last season's leading scorer Lee Hooper.

Indeed Town, whose pre-season preparations have gone well, were quickly in their stride, and Dean Roberts twice went close.

Davis already looks to be a valuable addition to the Town squad and was unlucky to see a lob go narrowly over the bar.

Grosvenor Park did not let Town have it all their own way and twice goalkeeper Dave Alden had to be at is best to deny the "home side" the lead.

Malvern though finished the half as they began and Davis was again unlucky not to given his side the lead when he headed narrowly wide from a Dean Roberts cross.

Moments later he sprang the offside trap, only to see his effort come back off the inside of the post.

The inevitable goal came in the 50th minute. Dean Roberts broke through but was pulled back on the edge of the box and while Grosvenor Park were trying to organise their defensive wall, the free kick was slipped quickly to Davis who fired home.

With multiple substitutions the game began to lose a little shape and Town were caught napping in the 67th minute, allowing their hosts to equalise.

But Town secured the decisive goal in the 78th minute, when Roberts again outpaced the Grosvenor defence, before unself-ishly squaring the ball to Lee Hooper who made no mistake from edge of the six yard box.

Town general manager Richard Anson said: "This was a very worthwhile exercise. Our preparations have been excellent, there is a good spirit in the squad and we look fit.

"Billy Davis looked very sharp and Craig Williams did very well in midfield during the first half and looked equally comfortable as sweeper in the second.

"Ex-Evesham midfielder Chris Wright also played part of the first half, but pulled up on 20 minutes with a thigh strain.

"We have a few holidays to contend with over the next couple of weeks, so it will probably be three weeks or so before we really settle on the squad and we do hope to make at least one more key signing.

"We also had Nick Clayton and Nathan Owen missing today but overall, we are heading in the right direction."