AN ill-judged response to a refereeing decision cost Malvern two precious points in the struggle for league survival at Stafford on Saturday.

STAFFORD 8PTS, MALVERN 7PTS

The home side were comprehensively outplayed, with the Malvern pack rumbling forward and pushing the Stafford pack back. The back row stifled any counter attack, forcing the Castlefields side to kick away danger and surrender possession.

From the kick-off, Malvern were on the attack, probing and stretching their opposition, making the breakthrough in the seventh minute when, from a scrum, Dave Wilkinson broke and the ball was fed out to Ben Lamb, who cut through to open the scoring. Steve Ott converted and Malvern looked in control.

Stafford tried to apply pressure in the Malvern half, but the backs, well marshalled by the wise direction of the veteran Richards, held firm. On the counter, Phil Snare made some telling breaks from the back of the scrum to take play back to Stafford. Rawle left the field with a leg injury, to be replaced by Clarke after 20 minutes, the youngster making his presence felt with an energetic performance.

Roberts made some fine breaks on the right wing, including one dazzling 40 metre run and Malvern pinned Stafford back once again. A turning point came as Malvern forced a five-metre scrum. The Stafford stand-off knocked the ball on in in-goal area, Malvern touched down for a clear try, having played the advantage. The referee awarded Malvern a scrum instead, and although Snare picked up and drove for the line, Stafford somehow managed to turn over the ball and clear.

This was a wake-up call to the home team, who decided that they could only combat Malvern's flowing rugby by disrupting play. A bit of skullduggery followed on Shaun Lancett at a ruck, in full view of the referee, an offence which carries an automatic red card and is usually followed by a three month ban. Instead, the referee commuted the sentence to a 10-minute spell in the sin-bin.

After the break, Stafford were reduced to 13 men as a lock forward was also shown a yellow card, but Malvern had allowed the rough-house tactics to upset their rhythm and they were dragged down to the level of the home side.

This was illustrated by Snare receiving a 10-minute break for retaliation. Stafford tails were up, and they started to put some decent moves together, although the Malvern defence was proving too good for them.

However, Malvern's fate was sealed when, having been awarded a penalty which would have cleared any danger, someone spoke out of turn to the referee and he reversed his decision, allowing Stafford to claw back three points.

From the restart, Stafford gathered, forced their way downfield and stretched the Malvern defence, the right-winger scoring in the corner.

For the last 15 minutes it was all Malvern. George Roberts was penalised as he sped through for what would have been a certain try, then he went over but was unable to ground the ball.

At the final whistle the Stafford players could not believe their luck, whilst Malvern were left to rue their moment of indiscipline.

The result, combined with successes for two other clubs at the wrong end of the league, put Malvern back to last but one.

Tomorrow (Saturday), Malvern face Newbold at Spring Lane, the kick-off is at 2.15pm and all support is welcome.