Barnes Hounslow Ealing 2 Reading 3

Reading were on the road again this Saturday, thankfully just down the M4 in Chiswick to face local rival Barnes Hounslow Ealing, and were pleased to come away with their third successive win on the road.

With several squad members absent through injury or holiday Reading had to quickly adjust to their squad changes with Holly Raby and Kirsty Reeman making the step back up from the 1As and Rachael Marriott making a guest reappearance. The change, and adjusting to lushness of the new Dukes Meadow, meant Reading again took a while to settle into their game. The opening exchanges were scrappy with neither side putting together much in the way of passing fluency, but two of REading’s key performers, Marianne Hood at the back, and Claire Kerr at the front, meant Reading were rarely threatened whilst retaining their cutting edge.

Midway through the half Reading began to exert their control over the game and for 15 minutes either side of half time were utterly dominant, racing into a 3-0 lead. Reading were to score all their goals from penalty corners, indicative of the work they have put into their routines during the winter break, whilst their defence didn’t concede a single penalty corner all game.

The first was scored after half an hour by injecter Marianne Hood, who slammed home after Emma Thomas’s initial shot was saved. Thomas made amends by scoring the second with a low drag flick right on the stroke oh half time to send Reading in 2-0 up at the break.

Reading were so dominant in the opening 10 minutes of the second half they didn’t even concede a defensive restart, and added to their goal tally when Claire Kerr tipped in another corner at the far post. At this point Reading looked in control and to be cruising to a comfortable win, when they failed to deal with a breakaway and conceded a penalty stroke. Keeper Lucy Stevenson couldn’t save so Barnes had pulled one back on their first visit to the Reading D in the half.

Reading got their grip back on the game and resumed control but failed to deal once again with another rare Barnes foray into their D in the 60th minute. The cross into the circle was missed by all Reading’s defenders but slotted home by Rachel Rank. If Reading were masterley in their control of possession, territory and their ability to win and convert penalty corners this risked being trumped by the near perfect penetration to goal ration of their opponents.

Reading could’ve faced a nervy 10 minutes but they didn’t really looked threatened again as they closed the game out in an assured way with Emily Malden and Vicky Bryant driving the team forward once again. They could have added a 4th goal at the end when they won another penalty corner on the final whistle, but with all players up glory beckoned for full back Ali Pope but her shot was easily saved.

Reading will be annoyed with these lapses in concentration that made this performance much closer than it should have been but with a depleted squad they were pleased with three more points from an away game. With Sunderland beating the undefeated Trojans the top two positions had closed up again and so Reading could look forward to taking on Loughborough Students on the Sunday for their second game of the weekend, and their first league home game since November, with some confidence.