AARON Richards saw red as Malvern Town suffered their first defeat of the season with a 1-0 loss to Wellington on Tuesday night.
Les Jones’ side were on a run of four straight wins, which lifted them to the top of the West Midlands Regional League table.
But they failed to back up their impressive 4-1 victory over Smethwick Rangers on Saturday as Aaron Morgan’s 53rd minute goal was enough to clinch all three points for the visitors.
Malvern’s cause was also not helped when Richards was brandished a straight red card as Town went on to surrender top spot to Sporting Khalsa.
Jones made only one change to the side, which thrashed Smethwick, as Harry Wickett came in for James Lush who was unavailable.
But the hosts struggled to hit the heights they had set in their previous fixtures as Wellington keeper Matt Eden was largely untested in the first half. Dave Reynolds was presented with the best chances to give his side the lead, but on three occasions he failed to hit the target as the opening period finished goalless.
Malvern lifted the tempo at the start of the second half and almost broke the deadlock as Matt Turner was just unable to get on the end of Reynolds low cross to the back post.
This was then followed by a set back for Town as Wellington opened the scoring. After the ball was played down the right, Morgan won a battle with Joe Endacott before rounding Niall Hacking and fire the ball home from an acute angle.
Malvern looked for a response, but they were then handed a further blow when Richards was sent off following a two-footed tackle on the half way line.
Despite going down to ten men, Town produced their first attempt on goal when Reece King headed Reynolds’ corner straight into the arms of keeper Eden.
Wellington came close to adding a second late on, but Hacking pulled off a fine save as he fingertipped the ball onto the cross bar.