MALVERN were left in state of disbelief as to how they managed to throw away a game that they had not only dominated, but saw them lead 2-0 with just fifteen minutes remaining and 2-1 with only a minute of normal time left.

MALVERN TOWN 2, WARLEY RANGERS 3

This Banks's Brewery League Premier Division match only went ahead after a late pitch inspection but, despite the sodden conditions, it was the home side who adapted the better, moving the ball quickly across the surface with the second placed visitors, who still harbour hopes of catching champions elect Ludlow, unable to handle the pace of Paul Ashby and Raj Sharma.

Twice Ashby found himself in the clear only to elect to shoot too soon, but Town did take the lead in the 18th minute when Sean Cotterill rose unchallenged to head home a pin point Steve Walker corner.

Warley rallied briefly after this and hit the outside of the post during a frantic goalmouth scramble, but Malvern generally controlled the remainder of the half.

It was the second period that saw Malvern really take control as Warley struggled to handle Town's continual pressure, twice Andy Shepherd found himself in clear, but on both occasions chose to chip the keeper who saved comfortably, shortly afterwards Shepherd again agonisingly failed to make firm contact to an excellent Phillpotts cross with goal at his mercy.

Also Ashby, on several occasions, broke clear of his marker but failed to produce the final finish he constantly threatened.

A second goal was inevitable though and came in the 65th minute when a Shepherd shot was blocked and Ashby was on hand to fire home to give the scoreline a more realistic look.

Town received a setback five minutes later when Sharma went off with an ankle injury.

Town were caught napping in the 75th minute, when ex Bromsgrove Rovers favourite Ricky Carter stole in to reduce the deficit with Warley's first real strike of the half.

Although Carter's effort gave the visitors some of hope of salvaging something from the game, no one could have predicted the dramatic finale that saw them claim all the three league points.

In the 89th minute Town were caught trying to play their way out of a tight situation only to lose possession and set up a Warley equaliser that few would have predicted, but worse was to follow when deep into injury time a half cleared corner fell to a Warley player on the edge of the box and his drive took a huge deflection of Cotterill, to give the wrong footed Ross Sanders no chance in the home goal.

Town assistant manager Richard Anson said: "It was an unbelievable result, we totally dominated the game and had enough chances to have won by a significant margin, but we have no one to blame but ourselves, you can't put it down to bad luck as the game was always in our control, but we were caught napping on their first goal and for the second week running, failed to pick a player up on the edge of the box in the final minute.

"Despite this you still have to remain positive as we had just played one of the best teams in the League off the park, but suffered because we made basic errors."

Malvern Town: Sanders, Dugdale, Clayton, Cotterill, Damore, Sharma (Higgins), Walker, Davies (Ward), Phillpotts, Ashby, Shepherd. Sub not used: Slade.