Cradley Town 1, Malvern Town 3.

A CHRIS Cornes brace helped Malvern Town progress through the first qualifying round of the FA Carlsberg Vase with a 3-1 defeat of Cradley Town.

The victory earned Chris Stephens’ side a home tie against Loughborough University on Saturday, September 18.

Malvern had already beaten Cradley 4-3 in the extra-preliminary round of the FA Cup but had not scored since that date and therefore knew they had their work cut out.

In the 10th minute, Craig Selby found Cornes who chipped Blake Green in the Cradley goal but the ball went over.

Five minutes later Malvern’s corner kick was cleared out of the box but fell to Jon Rogers who fired in from 30 yards just wide of the post.

In the 31st minute, Leigh Downing weaved his way into the area and his cross was tipped away by Green.

A minute later Cornes played a good through-ball to Downing who rounded the defender but Green saved his shot.

In the 43th minute the ball was played through to Selby who fired across goal.

Cradley’s opportunities in the first-half had been restricted due to excellent goalkeeping from Craig Humphries.

The visitors stayed buoyant in the second-half and their first chance came when Selby stormed into the box but his shot produced a finger-tip save from Green from four yards out. Malvern eventually took the lead after 62 minutes.

Downing crossed into the area to the back post for Cornes to rifle home.

Six minutes later Nathan Hayward picked out Cornes and he volleyed a tremendous shot across the goal into the top corner of the net, leaving Green a spectator.

In the 79th minute, the referee awarded a free-kick for handball against Scott Finnegan, just outside the area.

Sean Williams’ shot was pushed away by Humphries but it fell to Mark Swann who struck the ball home with the visiting keeper just being unable to save it.

In the 83rd minute, Cornes threaded a fine through-ball to Craven who fired home to make it 3-1.

A couple of minutes later then ball was played to Downing whose shot was saved by Green.

Two minutes from time, a long clearance from Humph- ries found Craven and he side-kicked the ball to Cornes, whose volley was heading toward the top corner of the net by Blake, who turned it over at the last second.

Malvern Town scored their first league goal of the Midland Alliance season at home to Stratford Town but lost 2-1.

The results sees Malvern remain at the bottom as they travel to Bridgnorth Town tomorrow (ko 3pm).