Express & Star West Midland League Division 1 South.

Malvern Rangers 1, Wyre Forest 2

Having enjoyed four consecutive league and cup wins, Rangers were brought back to reality with this home defeat against a competitive Wyre Forest side, but a side that Rangers should be quite capable of beating with the right level of commitment, application and concentration.

Rangers started brightly enough and after five minutes a good cross by Richard Forde, on the left, saw Marc Kitchener stretching to make contact 10 yards out but his shot went wide of the far post.

Rangers did score after 20 minutes with a good goal. Mark Owen played the ball wide to Simon Rea who set off on an excellent run which took him past three opponents before crossing to the far post where Stuart Harvey headed home.

Rangers seemed quite comfortable at this stage but toward the end of the day the visitors could so easily have equalised with a couple of good opportunities.

Rangers didn't seem to be the same side in the second half, perhaps defending too deep and allowing the visitors to dominate the play. .

After 11 minutes they had a goal disallowed when, from a right wing cross, a simple tap-in at the far post was ruled out for offside.

On 19 minutes an excellent right wing cross resulted in a goalbound shot which beat goalkeeper Carl Preece but Mark White rescued the situation with a superb goal line clearance.

After 25 minutes Rangers had a glorious change to increase their advantage when Stuart Harvey intercepted a bad back pass and when faced with a one on one situation with the keeper he could only hit the ball straight at him.

This miss proved costly as from the resulting counter attack Wyre Forest equalised. They attacked down their left and when a fierce shot came in at the near post keeper Carl Preece allowed the ball to squeeze past him and into the net.

At this stage Rangers seemed to settle for the point but they were denied even this four minutes into time added on.

Winning a corner on the left the ball was only partially cleared and within a very crowded area the loose ball was slammed home.

There was still time for Mark White to make a rash tackle and collect his second yellow card.

Tomorrow (Saturday) Rangers travel to pay West Hagley 'A' in the 2nd Round of the W.F.A. Junior Cup, KO 2pm, extra time and penalties if required. Players to meet Brooklyn Motors 12 prompt and Swan, Whittington 12-15pm.