MALVERN Town Reserves played out a 1-1 Herefordshire FA County League Premier Division home draw with Ewyas Harold on a chilly afternoon.

After passing a pitch inspection earlier in the day mid-table Town took the game to their fourth-from-bottom visitors early on and created a number of half-chances on a sticky surface.

Malvern gave a debut to under-18s left-back Toby Moran who linked up well with Henry Dyde as he caused the Ewyas Harold defence problems.

After 24 minutes Dave Hadden got in a strike that the keeper did well to save.

The same player had a chance just past the half-hour mark but took too much time to get in a strike.

As half-time approached Town took a deserved lead when Lanre Giwa put pressure on a defender who turned the ball into his own net.

The HDanywhere Community Stadium hosts came out of the blocks slowly at the start of the second period and paid the price when a mix-up in defence presented Ewyas Harold with an equaliser.

Despite being pegged back to 1-1 Malvern started to get a foothold in the game again and played neat football without troubling the keeper too much.

Ewyas Harold were reduced to 10 men on 86 minutes for a second yellow card and Malvern's Sam Daffin had to leave the field with an ankle injury.

But Town failed to find a winner as they were forced to share the spoils.

“It was two points dropped,” said manager, Peter Daffin.

“We dominated the game for long periods even though we were not at our best throughout the game.

“We gave the ball away a lot but I can’t fault the lads for the work-rate and effort.

"We know that we have to be able to put our chances away and we’ll be working hard on this in training as we prepare for our next game.”

The reserves host Fownhope in the league on Saturday (2.30pm).

Malvern's first team are without a game this weekend after last Saturday's fixture at Black Country Rangers was postponed due to a frozen pitch.

Their next match is at Tividale in the West Midlands League Premier Division on Saturday, February 16 (3pm).