MALVERN Town under 18s lost 6-1 at home to unbeaten high-fliers Stourport Swifts in the Midland Floodlit Youth League Southern Division.

Swifts scored three goals in each half on their way to victory while Elliot Cresswell netted for Town on the stroke of half-time with a low strike.

“It was a tough night,” admitted manager Steve Dallow.

“Congratulations to our opponents who did extremely well and showed why they are unbeaten this season.

“From the point of view of our own performance I’ll hold my hands up on a few things such as making changes to a back-line that has played together for much of the season.

“On the pitch we made too much hard work of the simple things, passes didn’t find their target when hitting longer balls when switching the play would have been more productive.

“The lads will learn from this experience and maybe on another night we would have run them a bit closer.”

Town's reserves exited the Herefordshire FA Charity Bowl quarter-finals with a 5-1 defeat in difficult conditions at Holme Lacy.

Missing a string of players, Malvern still went ahead on 20 minutes when Darren Critcher headed home.

The home keeper denied Town further goals and a free-kick levelled matters before Holme Lacy ran away with the second half.