STEPHEN Cleal lauded his side’s ‘great character’ after Malvern Town twice came from behind to beat Bristol Manor Farm 5-4 in a nine-goal epic.
Sam Clark’s injury time strike settled a chaotic contest, having earlier put the Hillsiders ahead, while Ibrahim Olateju netted a brace and Charlie Johnson also found the net at the HDAnywhere Community Stadium as visiting striker Louis Britton scored all four of Bristol’s goals.
The result lifts Malvern out of the Southern League Division One South relegation zone with Town’s joint-manager Cleal delighted to end the club’s eight-game run without a win in all competitions.
Cleal said: “You look at it and think a five-four game both teams must have been very poor defensively but I thought we defended quite well.
“We did what we had to and they all put their bodies on the line and going forward we scored some good goals.
“It’s just nice to get a win and nice to be back at home in front of our home fans, the win has been awhile coming.
“Everyone worked their socks off, we showed great character to come back twice, the lads never give up and we never give up as a football club.
“We’ve got to keep building points, it’s important we build on this result.”
Bristol took the lead after just five minutes when Britton fired home from just inside the penalty area at the near post after receiving the ball from a short corner.
However, Malvern drew level on 17 minutes as Olateju marked his home debut with a goal when he squeezed a shot under Bristol goalkeeper Sethan Locke.
The visitors reclaimed the lead five minutes later when Josh Bissett burst into the box and cut the ball back to Britton who finished from close range.
Britton almost completed a first-half hat-trick just before the half-hour mark with Malvern goalkeeper Alex Kovacevic alert to keep out the striker’s snapshot from the edge of the penalty area.
And Malvern equalised for a second time three minutes before half time when Johnson’s sweet strike from just outside the box found the bottom corner after good work from Lewis Rose down the right.
Kovacevic made another superb save to keep the scores level at the start of the second period when he acrobatically tipped Jacob Spence’s header onto the crossbar.
Malvern completed the turnaround on 63 minutes as Clark slotted home from Rose’s lay-off to put the Hillsiders in front for the first time.
However, Town’s lead lasted all of three minutes as Britton completed his hat-trick from the penalty spot after Kovacevic fouled the striker in the box.
Malvern took the lead for a second time on 73 minutes when Olateju produced a superb finish from substitute Jack Watts’ pass.
Bristol equalised again on 81 minutes as Britton lifted the ball over Kovacevic and into the top left corner to score his fourth of the night
The home side spurned a glorious chance to win the game as Watts found himself in behind the Bristol defence only for Locke to make a crucial save.
However, there was still time for one final twist when Clark forced a shot over the line two minutes into injury time despite the best efforts of Locke.
