Tenbury United 2 Mahal 3.

DESPITE creating more chances than their visitors, Tenbury United slumped to a 3-2 reverse against a more clinical Mahal outfit in their FTL Futbol West Midlands Regional League Division 2 encounter.

Tenbury went behind in a disappointing manner when ‘keeper Alex Bright misjudged the flight of a free-kick by Mahal’s impressive left-sided midfielder which sailed into the top corner from outside the penalty area on 20 minutes.

Mahal doubled their lead on 30 minutes against the run of play when one of their forwards turned his marker and curled a shot around Bright into the corner again from outside the box.

Tenbury were playing the more effective football in terms of carving out attempts at goal but failed to convert any of, at least, five decent opportunities.

They did manage to reduce the arrears in fortuitous fashion when Grant Harris got away with a blatant push following a corner and found Mike Foster with a header who, in turn, headed into the net.

After the interval, Tenbury were forced to defend in depth and Bright pulled off a couple of good saves from close range. But 10 minutes into the half Tenbury equalised through Ryan Morris who latched on to a through ball from Paul Smith to beat the goalkeeper.

Tenbury’s pressure then led to five corners being cleared from near the goalline with centre-back Paul Harris causing all sorts of problems.

But there was a sting in the tail for United when Mahal’s more assured finishing saw their left-midfielder make it 3-2 two minutes from time with a shot placed inside the far post.