MALVERN head coach Nick Tisdale is planning to turn Spring Lane into a fortress for the remainder of the National Three South West campaign.

Avonmouth Old Boys, who are currently one place below Malvern and in the relegation zone, are tomorrow’s visitors and Tisdale is determined to bounce back from last weekend’s 19-8 defeat at Amersham and Chiltern.

Tisdale took over from Liam Hughes at the end of last month and this will be his first home game in charge, so he is eager to make a positive impression on the home faithful.

He said: “Avonmouth are below us in the table, therefore it is a game we would look to win. We are looking to target all of our home games to try and make Spring Lane into a fortress.

“I have only just taken over at the club, though, so I am still assessing my playing resources.

“It is a fairly young squad, which probably needs a little more experience in certain areas.

“They like to play an exciting brand of rugby, but sometimes that doesn’t win you games.

“They just need to develop a bit more composure in the red zones — that comes down to a little bit of tactical naivety, but they are relatively young still.”

The Bristolian visitors picked up their maiden win of the campaign last time out with a 55-7 thrashing of rockbottom Maidenhead.

They have reportedly taken several of the higher-placed teams to the wire, so will be no pushover.

Young prop Jack Cosgrove has been handed his first start for Malvern tomorrow (2.15pm) after impressing off the bench last weekend and fellow Worcester academy player Antonio Harris starts at hooker.

Malvern will hand a late fitness test to influential centre Nick Miller, who has been slow to recover from a dead leg suffered against Redingensian Rams, so the backs line-up may not be finalised until the morning of the match. Ryan Watkins, who stood in for Miller against Amersham, has now been ruled out for several weeks by a rib injury.

Meanwhile, lowly Uptonupon- Severn are in need of a winning boost at home to mid-table Newbold-on-Avon in Midlands Two West (South) tomorrow (2.30pm).

Upton crashed 41-0 at Earlsdon last weekend.