HEAD coach Nick Tisdale has urged his players to not rest on their laurels after they claimed a morale-boosting 41-10 victory over Barkers’ Butts on Saturday.
It was a result which ended Malvern’s five match winless run as they also moved out of the Midlands One West relegation zone.
Tisdale said the six-try victory in front of a bumper crowd at Spring Lane was just reward for all his side’s hard work and has helped given the whole club a boost.
However, the Malvern boss insisted the hard work does not stop there as he has challenged his players to record their first away win of the season when they travel to Berkswell and Balsall who have lost their opening seven games of the campaign, on Saturday (3pm).
“There was a good crowd at Spring Lane, so I told the players to soak up the atmosphere and enjoy it, which they did,” Tisdale said.
“Obviously we were elated afterwards, but I have to stress the point that we need to get back out there in what will probably be horrible conditions and back it up with a victory at Berkswell and Balsall.
“They have also got a big strong pack of forwards, so they will be a stern test for us.”
The victory over Barkers included tries from Ben Essenhigh, Ieuan Mustow, Richard Jeynes, James Swain, Alan Keylock and Richard Preece. And Tisdale said he had every confidence his men could produce such a display despite their recent bad patch of form.
“Saturday’s performance has been coming for some time,” he added. “We had some more experienced boys back in crucial positions, which has helped. For instance Adam Dixon had a good game at ten, while we had a centre partnership of Ieuan Mustow and Nick Miller for the first time in some weeks.
“I am now hoping if we can get a few more players back from injury over the next couple of weeks we can pick up a some more wins before Christmas and then push on from there.”
Among those set to return for Malvern’s clash against Berkswell and Balsall are influential front row James Hynes, who has been suffering with a back problem, while number eight Jamie Anderson and prop Jon Davies are expected to be in contention.