A PENALTY in the dying minutes gave Hereford a narrow 20-18 victory over Malvern in the second round of the Intermediate Cup.

Malvern's director of rugby David Robins blamed poor tackling for the defeat and accused his players of displaying headless chicken syndrome.

The visitors had travelled to Wyeside confident of avenging their recent league defeat at the hands of their hosts and started well with Dave Merlin making some good punching runs.

Early signs indicated Malvern could control the game as they handled any Hereford counter-attacks with some excellent defending.

After a few niggling incidents, with Hereford's Simon Lewis sin-binned, Malvern made ground to the home five-metre line.

From the line-out the pack drove on and hooker Andy Logan burrowed over.

A further two clear chances were wasted before Andy Longley put over a penalty to give Malvern an eight point cushion at half-time.

By this stage Hereford's discipline had disintegrated with Jamie Bullock yellow-carded for elbowing Longley and the signs were looking good for a place in the next round for Malvern.

But the home side battled back and after taking a scrum against the head Ian Lively scored in the corner.

The game became scrappy and error strewn with Malvern showing none of the first half fluidity.

Finbar Heavens ran through a static defence to put Hereford in the lead and converted his own try.

Longley pulled back three points with a penalty, then Malvern rallied, taking the game back to Hereford.

A penalty try was awarded after Dave Beech and Bo Kristoffersen's pressure and Longley converted for a six point lead.

But Hereford bouncd back again and drove downfield for Jamie Bullock to score as tackles were missed.

Two minutes from time Heavens snatched the game from Malvern's grasp with a penalty to seal another narrow victory.

Malvern's Director of Rugby said he was disappointed at the manner of the defeat.

"Having shown that we could control the game, we lost our shape totally in the second period," said Robins.

"There seemed to be a headless chicken syndrome at times, and poor tackling threw the game for us.

"We have plenty of work to do before we play at Walsall next week."