MALVERN Town co-manager Dene Whittal-Williams is looking forward to Saturday's West Midlands League Premier Division opener at home to county rivals Pershore Town (3pm).

The HDanywhere Community Stadium side signed off pre-season with Tuesday's 3-2 defeat to Littleton and Saturday's 3-1 reverse to Stonehouse Town, both at home.

And Whittal-Williams admitted the friendly losses gave his side things to work on ahead of the Worcestershire derby.

On the Littleton game, he said: “It was disappointing from a defensive perspective, particularly in the first half where we switched off a few times.

"There are things for us to work on in that respect but it’s nothing to be too worried about. It’s the basics really.

“I felt we looked good going forward and caused problems. There was some decent attacking play and I was happy with the goals we scored.

“Obviously it’s disappointing to go into our league programme with a defeat but we’re looking forward to the season getting under way at the weekend.

“We’ll have to stand up and be the players that we can be. It’ll be a tough game.

"Pershore will want to put their own stamp on the league and extra spice is added with it being a local derby.

“If we perform right and do what I know we are capable of, we’ll give ourselves every chance of getting off to a winning start.”

A competitive encounter ended in defeat to Littleton.

The visitors went ahead early on but Malvern levelled on 21 minutes when Matt Turner latched onto a through-ball to guide home.

Although Littleton quickly regained the lead, Ben Lane pulled the ball back for Harry Clarke to level on the half-hour mark.

Despite chances for Malvern, their opponents broke away to score what turned out to be the winner on 51 minutes.

Malvern previously slipped to a 3-1 friendly defeat at home to Stonehouse on a wet afternoon.

Adam Sauntson went close before Matt Pinder rounded the keeper but the covering defender cleared off the line.

The visitors went ahead just past the half-hour mark when keeper Chris Pinder did well to save the initial effort but was powerless to stop the follow-up from close range.

Matt Pinder then forced a save and Matt Fusco saw two efforts blocked in front of goal.

In the second half, Aaron Griffiths’ free-kick was gathered at the second attempt.

But Stonehouse doubled their advantage on the hour when a low ball was delivered into the danger zone before being swept home.

Turner reduced the arrears on 70 minutes but the visitors scored straight from the restart.

Co-manager Lee Hooper said: “We started slowly and never really got going in the first half.

“We struggled to adapt to the conditions and with nine or 10 first-team players missing it was always going to be tough for our young side."

But Malvern's reserves were singing in the rain with a convincing 5-0 victory over their Stonehouse counterparts.

An early brace from Ben Price set them on their way before Lanry Giwa secured a three-goal advantage going into the second half.

Then two well-taken goals from Claudio Lopez completed a good afternoon’s work.

The reserves head to Marden on Saturday (3pm) and host Fairfield Villa Reserves next Wednesday.