TOWN Reserves returned to winning West Midlands division one ways with a classy display of controlled passing football over hapless visitors Darlaston Town.

MALVERN TOWN RES 3, DARLASTON 1

The visitors lacked any attacking ambitions and resorted to closing Malvern down as best they could and occasionally hitting back with the odd counter- attack.

Adam Simpson was back to his best and, with Joe Leighton and skipper Jamie Thomas in fine form, Darlaston rarely troubled Town's defence. Mike Oakes, Dan Finnigan and the ever-improving Sam Pallett dominated the middle of the park and it was just the front three who took a while to gel with one another.

Malvern opened the scoring on 28 minutes when Danny James crossed for Mark Goodman and the latter drove home from 10 yards out.

Early in the second-half, Chris Fellows contested a 50/50 ball with the visiting keeper and as it ran free, he was the quickest to react, placing the ball between the two defenders on the goal-line for Town's second.

Dan Finnigan found James with a slide rule pass, which James tried to lob over the advancing keeper. The keeper did well to get his fingers to the ball, deflecting it into the air, but was powerless to stop James following up and heading the ball just as it crossed the line.

Darlaston, who have conceded 13 goals in their last two encounters with Malvern, battled to the end, and were rewarded with a penalty.

Simpson barged into the visiting right-winger inside the box and Danniel Dubidat gave Tom Smith no chance with a well-directed penalty.

Town Reserves, who are sponsored by Laser Civil Engineering, had the match ball donated by the Festival Housing Group.

The previous week Malvern lost 2-1 to Sporting Khala which was a big disappointment as they dominated the game from start to finish. Town's scorer was Danny James.