MALVERN TOWN 1, HISTON FC 4

MALVERN Town's hopes of FA Cup glory came to an abrupt end on Saturday at Langland Stadium, not helped by the sending-off of skipper Darren Bullock just after half-time.

The Midland Alliance home side matched their illustrious Nationwide South table-topping visitors for much of the game and the final scoreline was somewhat flattering.

Histon took the lead after six minutes when Mat Haniver drilled a 20-yard free-kick through a crowd of players and it went in off the far post.

Although having their fair share of possession, Malvern were restricted to two long-range efforts from Rich Tomkins but felt they were denied a penalty when Mark Owen and Bullock combined before the latter appeared to be brought down in the area.

Malvern goalkeeper Craig Humphries made a good diving save and at the other end Owen's shot shaved a post with goalkeeper Key well beaten.

Rich Tompkins appeared harshly halted for offside after he broke through but, from the quickly-taken free-kick, the ball was played to Adrian Cambridge, who fired a shot against the bar leaving Neil Kennedy to head home into an empty net for 2-0.

Malvern came out fired-up for the second-half and within minutes their best move of the match saw Lee Tompkins feed Owen and he set up Mark Shepherd to clip the ball past Key to make it 2-1.

Shepherd also had a header well saved by Key as Malvern appeared to have Histon rattled.

But on the hour Bullock was given his marching orders after two yellow cards in a four-minute spell. Both incidents involved scuffles with Histon captain Andrews but it was only Bullock who was booked on both occasions.

Malvern still held their own until the 77th minute when an harmless-looking Andrews' shot was deflected past Humphries.

Malvern still had chances but any hopes were finally dashed in injury time when Barker lifted the ball over Humphries' head to make it 4-1.

On Tuesday evening Malvern Town caught up with a Midland Alliance game at Alvechurch and came away with the three points when Mark Owen scored the only goal of the game.