MALVERN Town made light of awful conditions to register a handy 2-1 win at midtable rivals Ellesmere Rangers in the West Midlands League Premier Division.

After a long journey to Shropshire, Les Jones’ side had to start playing into a strong wind after losing the toss.

But Malvern had the first chance when the ball was whipped in from the left and Lee Hooper’s shot went wide off the post.

However, while settling down, they conceded several corners which, with the wind, were difficult to defend and resulted in Ellesmere taking the lead.

In the fifth minute, the ball was played across the edge of his own box by a Malvern defender and Sean Griffiths’ shot was turned behind by keeper Charles Weaver at full stretch.

The resulting corner was not properly cleared and eventually fell for Mike O’Reilly to fire home.

But Ellesmere did not hold onto the lead for long as Malvern levelled in the 12th minute with the ball played to Dave Reynolds on the halfway line.

Reynolds ran down the left and then sent in a cross-shot which flew across goal and nestled in the top corner near the back post.

After half-an-hour, the incessant, slanting wind was joined by rain and, along with the difficult conditions, Malvern also disagreed with some of the officials’ decisions.

The visitors took the lead in the 62nd minute when a corner was played back for Lewis Dixon to fire home.

Malvern continued to operate as a compact unit and shrugged off the awful weather, earning three points to move above Ellesmere into 13th position.

Towards the end, Town defender Mark Saysell was booked for taking his time over a free-kick.

But, in the 85th minute, Saysell slid in on a tackle and was shown his second yellow followed by a red card for the second time this season by the same referee.

  • Bromyard Town drew 1-1 at second-from-bottom Bustleholme in the Premier Division ahead of tomorrow’s visit to sixth-placed Sporting Khalsa in Willenhall (3pm).

The hosts were in front until Bromyard equalised in the 89th minute.