L1A: Reading 2 Oxford Hawks 4

Reading Ladies 1a’s returned to action after a mid season break and
entertained newly promoted Oxford Hawks.  With a number of changes,
especially in the back 4, Reading did not get off to the best of starts as
they conceeded in the 4th minute.  Hawks continued to attack and scored a
second after 18 minutes as a short corner strike was deflected in by a
Reading defender.  Reading then had their best spell of the match as the
players looked to build play using short passes and retained possession and
controlled the play.  Despite good periods of attacking the Hawks defence
Reading could not find the final pass or the shot to open their account.
Right on half time Hawks scored a third to leave the home side facing an
uphill struggle.  In the second half, Reading forwards set out to hassle the
Hawks defence and Amy Simmons and Holly Raby worked tirelessly to force an
error from Hawks.  When the error came, Chiara Clarke picked up the ball and
won Reading a short corner.  Sinead French stepped up to strike and her shot
was saved on the line by a defenders foot before Reading forced the ball
over the line but the umpire had already blown for a penalty stroke.  French
took responsibility and made no mistake for a goal 4 minutes into the half.
Reading were in the ascendancy and further pressure from the forwards saw a
cross from the right deflected high across the D where Jen Bogg collected
and slotted home in the 59th minute.  For the next 10 minutes Reading were
concentrating on forcing an equaliser but with players tiring errors started
to appear and Hawks were able to score a fourth in the final minute.  Man of
the match voting was shared by the defenders Rachael Marriott, Sinead
French, Amy Sanders.  This week Reading travel to Wimbledon.