MALVERN Town's home game with Brierley Hill on Saturday in the Banks's Brewery Premier League turned out to be a "backs to the wall" display for the second week running.

MALVERN TOWN 0, BRIERLEY HILL TOWN 0

Town were reduced to ten men after just 14 minutes of play when skipper for the day Mick Lowe was shown the red card when he was adjudged to have fouled visiting striker Andy Hughes in a goal scoring position.

The resulting free kick from just outside the area came to nothing and, once Malvern had re-shaped they still looked to be the better side, although after 26 minutes they had Ross Sanders to thank after he had clawed the ball round the post from point blank range from Craig Hancock following a corner by Dave Gill.

Malvern's ten men were controlling the game superbly well restricting the visitors to long range efforts but their own attacks were limited and play was limited to the middle of the park for long periods with neither side showing any creativity.

The second period followed the same pattern with Brierley Hill not taking advantage with the extra man. Birmingham based referee Mr Cox continued making bizarre decisions and holding up the flow of the game needlessly which resulted in it turning into a boring game to watch.

There were times however, when Malvern could have taken the lead from breakaways and none more so than when Darren Wade delivered a superb ball into the box which found Dene Whittal-Williams who turned his marker before shooting, but his effort lacked pace and keeper Chris Smith collected.

Play continued to be scrappy and on 81 minutes Malvern were down to nine men when Luke Chadwick was sent off for a crunching 50-50 tackle on Brierley Hills centre half Paul Millard who got a yellow card for retaliation.

After this incident Malvern were prepared to sit back and see time out to take a share of the points.

Tomorrow, Saturday, Malvern have another home game when newcomers Heath Hayes are the visitors to Langland Stadium. Kick off 3pm.