MANAGER Les Jones is targeting silverware as his Malvern Town side entertain Shifnal Town tonight (Wednesday) in the second round of the West Midlands (Regional) League Premier Division Cup.
After Saturday’s league game against Stone Old Alleynians was postponed due to a frozen pitch, the Hillsiders will play their first competitive game at the HDAnywhere Community Stadium since December 10.
Coincidentally, on that day Jones’ side enjoyed a 4-2 victory over Shifnal thanks to goals from Nathan Hughes, Louis Loader, Lewis Platt and Dave Reynolds.
With the chance of meeting either Ellesmere Rangers or Wolverhampton Sporting Community in the quarter-finals of the Premier Cup up for grabs, Jones is hoping for a strong showing from his side.
“It’s a big game for us,” he said. “We beat Shifnal earlier in the season in the league and we want to beat them again in the cup.
“At the start of the season we targeted the Premier Cup as something we wanted to win.
“Hopefully we will put in a good performance and progress into the next round.”
Jones has no injury worries ahead of tonight’s clash but is boosted by the return of midfielder Nathan Hayward.
The Hillsiders boss has also brought in Stourport Swifts’ 19-year-old striker Matthew Pinder who is in line to make an appearance against Shifnal.
“Matt is a talented individual who has been on the fringes of the first team at Stourport so we decided to bring him in and boost our attacking line-up,” Jones said.
“We knew we needed to reinforce our attack so we’ve brought in a lad who has tremendous potential to help us out.”
Following tonight’s cup clash, Malvern return to Premier Division action on Saturday when they entertain second from bottom Dudley Sports.
The two sides met earlier in the season when Sports managed to come from 2-0 down to salvage a point and, with that result still fresh in the mind, Jones is hoping to set the record straight.
“Dudley Sports managed to snatch a draw from the jaws of defeat,” he added.
“They did not deserve to get a draw out of that game so I’m hoping we put in a consistent performance over 90 minutes on Saturday to get the three points.”