Friar Lane & Epworth 3, Malvern Town 3.

TEN-man Malvern clawed their way back from 3-0 down to salvage a draw at Friar Lane & Epworth in Aspire Midland Alliance.

Friar Lane started brightly and Town keeper Alex Hards was called upon to make a double save in five minutes and Craig Williams had to clear off the line.

Malvern were not at the races and it was no surprise when the ball was threaded through to Ronnie White after 21 minutes and he slotted the ball home.

Fifteen minutes later the ball was played to him out on the right and he ran into the box and fired home an unbeatable shot.

While Malvern were still reeling, White grabbed his third three minutes later.

Malvern came on first shot on goal was 42 minutes when Craig Selby’s chip was caught by keeper Laurie Pearson.

Malvern came out for the second period having brought on all three substitutions.

This had the desired effect with Joe Kings, Craig Carter and striker Andrew Crosskey’s pace unsettling the Friar Lane defence.

Malvern got the first goal back after 59 minutes when Kings’ goal-bound shot hit Jordan Wakeling and went into the goal with Pearson stranded.

Two minutes later, Malvern worked out a wonderful goal when Kings crossed to Carter, who ran up the right and then slotted the ball to Kyle Knott to rifle the ball home.

Friar Lane were beginning to get rattled and following a poor tackle on Knott, although the player was booked, Knott was unable to return to the field of play and Malvern were reduced to 10 men.

However, they still battled on, and in the 67th minute, Crosskey ran into the box and was brought down by Pearson.

The referee awarded a penalty which Bryan Craven converted.

This led to a hectic 20 minutes where Friar Lane threw everything at Malvern and found Hards in excellent form.

He pulled off several wonderful saves and, with Craig Williams marshalling the back-line, they managed to see off all the attacks.

In injury-time Lane’s Ryan Robbins ran into the box and the referee adjudged that Hards had brought him down and awarded a penalty. However, his attention was drawn to the assistant referee who flagged for offside. The referee went to speak to his assistant and he awarded Malvern a free-kick.

Malvern Town Reserves have asked the West Midlands (Regional) League for a two-week period of grace in order to establish whether they can run a side this year. Just before the season started all of their reserves from last year joined Malvern Rangers, together with the coach and physio, which left Malvern struggling for numbers.

Although they have been trying to bring the youth players through, without the nucleus of a reserve team have been struggling to field teams.

Adverts were placed for a new manager and have requested the extra time.