MALVERN Town were held to a 2-2 draw at fellow midtable outfit Wellington in the West Midlands League Premier Division.

The Herefordshire-based hosts survived a bright start from Malvern to take the lead in the 10th minute when Saul Thomas converted a spot-kick after the referee awarded a penalty for handball.

Malvern equalised in the 27th minute when the ball was played up-field to Ed Lyons and he knocked it on, before firing past Craig Hill in the Wellington goal.

This led to Malvern dominating play and Lyons was soon in the thick of the action again when he was played in, but his shot looped over following a deflection.

In the 35th minute, a corner was played to the back post and Malvern’s Andy Fletcher rattled the crossbar, before the ball was then scrambled away.

A minute later, Rob Cullen played the ball to Reece King, who fired over. Cullen burst up the right wing and passed to Lyons, but his shot was caught by Wellington keeper Craig Hill.

Against the run of play, Wellington re-took the lead.

They were awarded a freekick near the half-way line, which was played into the box for defender Dale Withers to powerfully head home at the back post.

Malvern were handed a way back into the game in the 73rd minute when Harry Wickett was pushed in the box and the referee awarded a penalty, which Andy Fletcher converted to level the scores again.

The visitors could have snatched all three points in the dying minutes when Cullen ran through, but Hill parried his shot and Lee Hooper fired the rebound just wide.

  • Hanley Swan travelled to Winchcombe Town Reserves with a depleted squad and suffered a 4-3 defeat in Cheltenham League Division Two.

The hosts had been bolstered by the inclusion of a number of first-team players and it was obvious from the start that they were much better than their lowly league position suggested.

However, Hanley took the lead with a well-taken goal from James Newland, who was making his first start.

Winchcombe equalised minutes later and went ahead following a free-kick which the Hanley defence failed to deal with.

The visitors were not really in the game at this stage and the hosts scored another to make it 3-1 at half-time.

Hanley started the secondhalf with a much better attitude, as they began to put pressure on the Winchcombe defence and Dave Schooling soon broke through and scored with a low drive.

With Hanley pushing forward in search of the equaliser, they left themselves open at the back and Winchcombe took advantage to increase their lead.

Hanley didn’t give up and their efforts were rewarded when Newland slotted home his second.

With the score at 4-3, Hanley pushed centre-half Adam Dovey forward and he went close to equalising on several occasions, but time ran out and they slipped to their first league defeat of the season.