AYLESBURY UNITED 3, MALVERN TOWN 1

MALVERN travelled back to Chesham United's ground on Monday to play ground-sharers Aylesbury United, who are fourth in the league and returned home pointless after some strange decisions by the officials.

The pitch after the bad weather and the fact that the Chesham Ladies and Youth both played on the pitch on Sunday was cut up badly and the referee took several looks before agreeing the game could go ahead.

However both sides decided to try and play football and play went from end to end.

Malvern were lucky in the 25th minute when a poor back pass to Town goalkeeper Paul Wyatt failed to reach him and Nathan Graham's shot hit the post and was rolling onto the goal-line when Aaron Drake cleared it away.

In the 38th minute the ball was played to Justin Marsden who ran into the area and was brought down. The referee immediately blew the whistle and awarded a penalty but the Aylesbury players appealed that the assistant referee had not flagged and was closer to the incident. The referee went to the assistant and, having listened to him, restarted the game with a drop-ball.

This upset Malvern for a while and in the 40th minute the home side's Ben Stevens ran down the left and crossed a ball to the near post where Andrew Shaw slotted home.

In the 57th minute with Malvern pushing forward looking for the equaliser, they lost the ball near the half way line and it was played into Malvern's half where at least three players appeared in offside positions, the assistant waved play on and Aylesbury's top goalscorer Nathan Graham took his chance to fire home.

Malvern still did not give up and Adam New went close twice half way through the half before Justin Marsden finally scored for Malvern in the 84th minute.

Aylesbury then survived strong penalty claims for hand ball as Malvern pressed.

In time added on, Aylesbury broke again and Kevin Mealor slotted home with the last kick of the game.

Tomorrow (Saturday), Malvern Town return to Langland Stadium, for the first time since their 2-2 draw with Willenhall Town on November 17, when they entertain mid-table Bishops Cleeve (3.00).

Town manager Paul Molloy said: "We have got to start picking up some points now otherwise we are going to be facing relegation. Fortunately only one goes down in our league and we have just got to make sure it's not us."

Town visit Rushall Olympic next Saturday (December 22) and welcome Evesham United on Boxing Day.