MALVERN Town suffered a disappointing home defeat at the Langland Stadium on Tuesday night, when visitors Ludlow punished Town severely, particularly in the first 20 minutes, when two defensive errors gifted the away side a two goal lead.

MALVERN TOWN 2, LUDLOW TOWN 3

To be fair 'Town had a number of pre match problems,with Simon Judge and John Hayes both on the injured list and Adam Ward,Steve Walker,Joe Maidment and Andy Shepherd all suspended and this probably was the major reason for Malvern's shaky start which saw Ludlow score twice, unopposed, from headers in the 10th and 17th minutes.

'Town, though, began to regain some composure and eventually begin to put the visitors on the back foot.

First Richard Congrave might have reduced the decfit as could have Phil Slade,but on both occasions Towns efforts were parried by the visiting 'keeper, who probably could not believe his luck that no Town player pursued the resultant loose balls. Sean Cotterill also ,twice, headed narrowly wide, whilst Rob Bastock saw a fierce effort deflected over the crossbar.

In the 40th minute Chris Thomas eventually clawed Malvern back into the game, when his superb free kick flew into the roof of the net.

The second half saw Ludlow almost disappear as an attacking force and Richard Congrave might have equalised for 'Town, but fired wide when well placed, however, in the 73rd minute Ludlow restored their two goal advantage, when Town appeared to stop expecting the referee to blow for a foot up against Adam Higgins, instead the ball fell invitingly to a Ludlow forward who ran on unopposed to slot past Sanders and virtually secure the three points for his side.

With just four minutes left Saturday's hero Sean Cotterill pulled a goal back with a close range header and despite the visitors anxiously encouraging the referee to blow for full time they held out as Town had left their final assault a little too late.

Malvern Town: Sanders, Damore, Cotterill, Bastock, Clayton, Higgins (James), Phillpotts, Brooks, Thomas, Congrave, Slade. Subs not used: Hadley, White.

Commenting on the last two games Assistant Manager Richard Anson said, "After securing all three points on Saturday in a game in which we were far superior than the scoreline suggests, we were very disappointed to slip up on Tuesday.

Once again we paid the ultimate price for basic defensive errors and this is something we are going to have to eradicate from our play quickly.

Obviously we were not helped by six absentees all of whom are likely to have started, but we were aware of the suspension situation before the season and covered the squad accordingly, but the last minute problems affecting Simon Judge and Johnny Hayes probably tipped the scales a little too far."