BOSS Les Jones was crestfallen after his Pershore Town “underdogs” got pegged back by Malvern Town in added time – but both camps agreed the draw was fair.
The derby rivals will do it all again at King George V Playing Fields in the FA Vase tomorrow (Tuesday, 7.45) after a 1-1 tie at Evesham United’s Jubilee Stadium on Sunday.
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Sam Hunt’s free-kick levelled for 10-man Malvern a minute past the 90, leaving Jones to ponder a missed opportunity to get one over the club that sacked him as manager in April 2018.
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“When you’re leading 1-0 in the 91st minute it is really disappointing not win, although it was a lovely free-kick,” said Jones.
“I thought that was the only way they would score, from a set-piece, because we defended really well.
“Malvern are top of their league and we are in the middle of ours. They finished fourth in our league last season, we finished 14th.
“I felt we were underdogs and we acquitted ourselves really well. I think the draw was fair, the teams were quite even and it was pleasing for us to think we have moved up to be almost on a par with Malvern over six months.”
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Malvern’s star man Matt Turner was left to rue whacking the inside of the post in the first half but made the case for his side deserving a second bite of the cherry.
“I was gutted. I thought it was off the post and in and was getting ready to wheel away but saw it go past the other post,” he said.
“We didn’t play our best football and got dragged into their game a little bit. They did well and put us off, stopped us playing.
"With 10 men we did well to dig in and get the goal back so overall it was not a bad result. We are happy with it from where we were.
“In the second half we didn’t let them create and had the better of the chances for the last hour but their defence did well.”
Steve Webb is a doubt for Pershore but Jones is hopeful Tom Harding will recover sufficiently to play a part little more than 48 hours after the first match.
“It is the rules that you play in the same week, we would have wanted to play next week but had no choice,” said Jones.
“It will be nice for the club and the team to be at home with a big crowd, though. I am looking forward to it and I am sure our dressing room is.
“We didn’t know how strong Malvern would be, now we do."
Turner added: “It is quite a quick turnaround and a bit of a shame it was played on a Sunday. Saturday would have given us more time to recover but it is the same for both teams.
“Hopefully we can turn it around and win at their place.”
Pershore's Zaqib Hussain and Malvern captain Louis Loader, both sent off on Sunday, are understood to be eligible for the replay.
Both are listed on the Worcestershire FA website as banned for one FA Vase match from Saturday, September 8.
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