MALVERN Town and Wolverhampton United fought out a scrappy 1-1 draw in the Express and Star Premier Division at the Langland Stadium on Saturday.

MALVERN TOWN 1, WOLVERHAMPTON UNITED 1

Slow to start, Malvern gave away a number of early corners as they consistently failed to clear their lines.

Eventually, another cross into the box was adjudged to have been handled by Sean Davies and the resultant spot kick brought the visitors a 10th minute lead. Malvern gradually improved after this, but their attempts on goal tended to be self created either by the tireless running of Matt Upton or the ingenuity of Robbie Gore, although Adam Higgins and Andy Shepherd might both have done better when well placed.

The second half saw Malvern marginally improve, but it was not until Town boss Joey Rawle introduced Neil Mogford and Adam Ward into the game, that they started to get some real purpose about their play.

At last Town began to peg the visitors back and when Nick Clayton threaded a superb ball through to Gore, the big striker expertly lobbed the United 'keeper to equalise in the 70th minute for his fifth goal of the season.

Malvern continued to press forward and Ward looked to have given them the lead when his looping header drifted agonisingly wide of a vacant goal, Shepherd also shot wide having got himself into a good position, but during last five minutes, Town failed to maintain the momentum and the visitors again caused some anxious moments in the Town defence before the referee blew for time.

Town assistant manager Richard Anson said: "We are lacking a bit of conviction about our play, particularly at the back and in the midfield areas, our final ball was also poor.

"We have got to start upping our levels of concentration and generally being more positive all around the park, but with 41 games to go we believe it will not be long before we get ourselves into a challenging position, we have the players and once we begin to click we will be away."

Malvern Town: Alden, Higgins (Mogford), Davies, Damore, Clayton, Holmans, Shepherd, Walker, Thomas (Ward), Gore, Upton. Subs not used: Cotterill, Dugdale.