MALVERN Town continued their goalscoring spree with a 5-0 thrashing of West Midland Regional League strugglers Shifnal Town at Phoenix Park.
Les Jones’ side were not quite as clinical as they were against Wednesfield seven days earlier when they racked up 12 goals.
But their confidence in front of goal shone through once again on Saturday as Sam Rathbone and Ben Hayes both bagged braces before Jack Cullity completed the rout.
Malvern were without Dene Whittal-Williams and Aaron Richards, while Lee Hooper had a fitness test before the game. But this did not appear to unsettle the visitors who picked up from where they left off against Wednesfield.
With just seven minutes on the clock, a free kick from the right found Rathbone at the back post to tuck the ball into the corner of the net.
Malvern thought they had grabbed a second after 23 minutes when Kirk Layton’s shot hit a defender and went into the net but it was flagged for offside.
Despite the set-back, the away side remained on the front foot and the pressure soon told as Hayes struck after receiving Hooper’s cross.
Keeper Luke Kriskinans was doing his best to keep Shifnal in the game as he did well to keep out Hooper’s effort, but his side suffered a major blow two minutes before the break.
After Barry Evans tackled Layton from behind, Dave Reynolds rushed up to the Shifnal player who retaliated by grabbing the Malvern striker by the throat. The referee instantly showed Evans a straight red card and then, after lengthy discussions, sent off Reynolds as well.
The disruption could have derailed Town, but instead they responded well as they bagged a third in the second minute of injury-time. Rathbone was the scorer as put the ball away at the second time of asking after his first attempt was cleared back to him.
Malvern continued to boss proceedings after the interval and opened up a 4-0 lead on the 65th minute as Rathbone went down the left and crossed to Hayes to slot home.
Several chances went begging before Town completed the scoring with 11 minutes to go. After receiving the ball in the area, Cullity rounded the replacement keeper and fired the ball home.