All Blacks 3,
Malvern Radar 1
A goal in injury time finally sealed Radar's fate in this Bernard Finnegan Trophy tie in Worcester last sunday. A much-improved performance from the previous week was only let down by their finishing in a game they probably should have at least drawn.
The first chance fell to Nial Henderson with the ball dropping at his feet following a scramble, only for him to put the ball too close to All Blacks' goalkeeper Todd Emerick, who did well to push the ball to safety.
The home side then had two lucky escapes when Dave Marshall hit the post twice with headers from successive corners and it was left to the home side to show how to finish when a great left wing cross from Paul Cole found Jeremy Clarke-Morris who scored with a precision header.
Determined defending from the home side kept Radar out and All Blacks extended their lead on the hour when Cole shot from 20 yards and although the ball was not struck too cleanly it had enough power to find the bottom corner of the net.
Wake up
This seemed to wake Radar up and Gary Head took advantage of a defensive mix up to reduce the deficit and Marshall should have equalised when he toe ended an effort wide of the post.
With ten minutes left,Radar had their best chance to level when Marshall was pushed in the area. However, John Rooney's woeful penalty was easily saved by Emerick.
All Blacks still looked dangerous going forward and, when Tony Shaw crossed from the right, Phil Brown was left with an open goal only to somehow miss the target from three yards.
Tony Bishop then had a great chance for Radar when he latched onto a long clearance only to see his attempted lob fail to clear Emerick's outstretched arms and then in the final moments Brown atoned for his earlier miss easily converting Mark Langfield's cross.
This sunday Radar are at home to Wyvern, players meet Victoria Park 9.45
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