Report Sunday March 7th 2010   Reading V Alton ( Away )

Final Score: Reading 5 – Alton 3

Having just read Paul’s email, I can only say that perhaps he has thanked me prematurely
for my role as Match Reporter..! Perhaps Bullet Point Note Taker would be more appropriate and not very many notes taken, to be honest…

So:
Although the sun was shining and it was a beautiful morning, there was an absolutely bitter wind blowing across the playing fields in Alton and the pitch was still very hard.

Tony was away and ‘Atrocious’ was in charge, living up to the name, from the start..

Captain for the day was Nicole.

Kick Off was delayed by about 20 minutes while waiting for the pitch to warm up. The girls were going to be playing on a very large pitch, after only playing two matches since December, so it would be a good test for their match fitness and stamina..
Alton won the kick off and were straight in with great determination and for around the first 10 minutes the ball was mostly at the Reading Goal end of the pitch....Morgan played well under the pressure, running out a couple of times to meet the ball.
Then April launched a great kick out to Eloise who passed well up to Nicole who sped off, racing up the right side of the pitch and sent in a cracking goal. 1:0 to Reading, the crowd roared….! and Reading seemed to transform back into their normal motivated selves..

The game definitely picked up for Reading after that, with the ball spending more time in the Alton End.. However the ground was very slippy and a few of the girls were caught out and took a tumble.
Jemma was racing up the lines against a very speedy Alton player and Livvie was passing well, looking for spaces but then.. Alton were on the attack again and found the net. 1:1……
A bit more battling ensued and then Leanne had a brilliant run up the right side and scored… 2:1 followed soon after by the Half Time whistle..

(Steam train chugged by at the back of the pitches!!  Don’t see them very often.)
The Second Half started with April in goal but after a few minutes Clara, after a strong performance on pitch, swapped into goal as she had picked up an injury. The game of ping pong scoring continued when Alton got one back.. 2:2..  but Reading were having none of that and Leanne scored another great goal moving Reading ahead 3:2 .
Helen was now facing the speedy Alton player and battling hard. Leah was kicking out some great balls from defence & Sophie juggled defence and mid field with equal determination.

Somehow, Alton came back and managed to slip a ball through 3:3……
Time was getting shorter now but Reading attacked back immediately and Jae, now in midfield scored to give a 4:3 lead followed by Nicole’s second goal to end in a 5:3 win for Reading Girls..

Player of the match was a very deserving Ellie, who was determined and focused for the whole game and just didn’t give up…..
Thanks must go to Paul for managing the girls so well and only embarrassing Sophie a bit…

TA