The 1st XI travelled to Beckenham on Saturday knowing their chances of promotion lay in their hands with three of their remaining five league fixtures against teams well below them in Division One.
The first of these was against a Radley side who had defeated the OMs 2-1 earlier in the season. On a bobbly pitch bathed in the Spring sunshine, Malvern started brightly and created the best openings in the early stages. Peter Ford might have done better when shooting straight at the goalkeeper before the striker did give the OMs the lead, running onto a Will Murtagh header and in turn heading over the advancing keeper and into the net. Malvern were looking solid at the back, apart from the occasional dodgy moment from Josh Hughes, who had uncharacteristically turned up after kick off and perhaps still suffering from his Friday night excursions. However, the OMs survived and led 1-0 at the break.
After a double change at half time. which saw Max Kufner and Tom James (who had looked dangerous early on in the game when filling in for Hughes until his arrival), the home side were dealt a blow early in the second period. A swift counter attack saw the ball played in between Ed Ford and Arthur Vaughan, and the Radley forward somewhat fortunately lifted the ball over Dan Madden to level at 1-1. Malvern continued to create chances as Ayo Afolabi and James' pace caused problems, but Kufner shot too close to the goalkeeper when through on goal and Alex Richardson fired over after good work from Kufner. Malvern then suffered a double blow as first James was forced off with a broken elbow (all at the Club send their best wishes to Tom in his recovery), and then insult was added to injury as Radley took the lead. Again the opposition's forward found time to get a shot off, and the ball took a cruel deflection To leave Madden with no chance. 2-1 down with only 15 minutes to go the OMs threw caution to the wind, switching to 4-4-2, throwing Ford back on and playing Afolabi and Will Gifford wide as they went all out attack. It worked as Malvern laid siege to the Radley goal with wave after wave of attack. The impressive Leon Kirchhoff, who is looking closer to full fitness after a niggling ankle problem, equalised with a deflected volley from a Gifford corner. The same combination put Malvern in front at 3-2 as another wicked delivery from Gifford was superbly headed down and in by Kirchhoff. The Old Malvernians saw out the remaining minutes fairly comfortably to seal a crucial three points and maintain their promotion push with four games of the season remaining.
The character shown by the side in adversity this season has been a consistent theme in their success, but perhaps it was the belief and refusal to panic that was most impressive on this day.
