Winchester City Flyers 8-0 Reading Women: Match Report

A game to forget as the Royals are thrashed on the road by Winchester City Flyers.

The Royals suffered a bad day at the office against a rampant Winchester City Flyers team, who smashed Reading Women for eight at the Charters Community Stadium on Sunday.

Reading were blown away by the home side - with goals from Lavinia Nkomo, Eliza Eaton, Charlene Rooney and Kayleigh Tonks, together with a brace for Libby Wilkinson and Annie Northwood. Winchester ran out 8-0 winners in what turned out to be an uncharacteristically one-sided contest, when compared to the progress and promise displayed in recent performances from the young Royals team.

The Royals were up against a Flyers team in good form and scoring freely, their unbeaten run stretching now to eight successive victories (four of those in the league), dating back to November. That includes the 4-1 league win against Reading, at Arbour Park, a month ago.

Maybe City just had too much energy after their match was postponed last weekend? But something just didn’t feel right for Reading - from the kick-off.

There were players missing from the squad (such as recent new signings Tiffany Lee and Shardonna’e Ekun, alongside regulars Assia Fatri, Ellie Herbert and Lily Brooke-Cousins), meaning manager Pedro Bruno once again, couldn’t name a full substitutes bench.

Bruno made three changes from last weekend’s match against Sholing, with Poppy Airey, Santearna Spencer and Megan Giles all returning to the starting line-up in place of Ekun and Fatri. Caitlin Levy was on the substitutes bench.

With a squad limited in the number of players available on a match day, there’s always going to be some interesting decisions to be made with regards to the starting line-up and formation. Some players are being asked to play in positions they are not familiar with.

Team: Cherry Preisner (GK), Megan Giles (Kamira Elouath,23), Amber Langston-Lloyd, Rachael Poole, Mia Bradley, Zuzanna Gajzler (Spencer, 83), Mollie Dench, Poppy Airey (Caitlin Levy, 39, Airey, 53), Lucy Bolitho -Captain (Levy,85), Santearna Spencer (Sajunae Turner, 39, Sumayah Zayadi, 66)), Keira Morl (Giles, 66)

Winchester City Flyers goalscorers: Libby Wilkinson, 29, 35, Lavinia Nkomo, 30, Eliza Eaton, 48, Charlene Rooney, 50, Kayleigh Tonks, 71, Annie Northwood, 82, 84

At kick-off, there was a look of square pegs in round holes.

Defender Airey started in midfield (and ended up in defence). Dench, usually marshalling the defence, started in an attacking right-side position (and ended up at right-back), with Reading’s most creative and dangerous player Bradley starting at left-back and finishing on the right wing.

Whatever changes the Reading manager attempted (and he tried on numerous occasions) - including the use of rolling substitutes - he just couldn’t find a combination that worked and Reading found themselves pretty much out of the match by half-time.

From within the first minute, City’s hat-trick hero at Arbour Park - Wilkinson - fired a shot over the Reading crossbar with a tester and early warning of what was to follow.

After early dominance from the home side, it looked as though there may be a breather for Reading when Gajzler fired over from long range. Eloutha was then introduced for her Royals debut to lead the attack.

The respite was proven to be short-lived when, in a space of just six minutes either side of the half-hour mark, the home side scored three goals and set up a very difficult second half.

A quick Winchester throw-in from Nkomo found its way to Wilkinson, with time inside the box to control the ball and drive it past Preisner in the Reading goal. 1-0.

City doubled their lead 60 seconds later when Nkomo broke down the Royals’ right-hand side. Her left-footed strike was perfectly placed in the far corner and into the net off the post. 2-0.

City introduced substitute Eliza Eaton to the action and she wasted no time at all to square the ball to Wilkinson for her second of the match. 3-0.

Reading were unlucky not to grab a goal back when City goalkeeper Eleanor Parker got herself into all sorts of trouble and, under pressure from Elouath and Gajzler, saw her attempted clearance rebound off Gajzler but just wide of the post.

Half-time: 3-0

Any chance of Reading getting back into the match dissolved within the opening five minutes of the restart, with the ruthless home side showing no mercy and extending their lead with two more goals.

City’s Tonks broke down the Flyers’ left wing to slide the ball across the Royals’ penalty area, allowing substitute Eaton to tap in at the back post. 4-0.

Just two minutes later, and with only 50 minutes on the clock, Reading failed to clear a corner and were punished by City captain Rooney, who rocketed a shot into the top corner of the Royals’ goal from the edge of the penalty area. 5-0.

The home side continued to press, with Tonks latching onto a poor defensive pass and control as Reading were trying to pass out of defence. That left the City striker with a run on goal before a cool finish to slot past Preisner. 6-0.

With quarter of an hour remaining, Reading enjoyed a short period of attacking pressure. They won a corner, a long-range shot from substitute Zayadi went just wide of the goal and a great free-kick from Dench was met by the head of captain Bolitho, her effort headed over the stranded City goalkeeper but just wide of the post. Unlucky.

Before the clock could tick down for the referee to blow for full-time (and he thankfully didn’t add any time!), and with Reading trying to grab something positive from the match, there was, unfortunately, still time for City to inflict further pain and suffering. Flyers substitute Northwood grabbed a brace late on.

As if to punish Reading for a rare attack, the home side countered quickly with Northwood running through and finishing nicely. 7-0.

Two minutes later, it was Northwood again who controlled a pass from Nkomo to smash a shot into the roof of the Reading goal - off the crossbar. 8-0.

Full-time: 8-0

After what has been amazing recent progress, this match felt like a step backwards and a day to forget. It was about as character-building as matches go and, to be honest, we’ve already had enough of those lessons already this season - so let’s hope it’s one the team can quickly move on from as there’s still plenty to look forward to.

It was Reading’s 11th league match of the season (and only their third away fixture). Thanks to a second-half comeback from Sholing, who did the Royals a big favour with a 2-1 win against Selsey, the Royals remain eighth in the table, one point above Selsey and Badshot Lea - with one game in hand over both their fellow relegation-battlers.

The good news is that it’s also still very much in the hands of Reading, who have league fixtures to be scheduled against both teams (Badshot Lea home and away, and a trip to Selsey).

Reading also announced two more exciting signings during the week - with sisters Kayla and Maya Ragunandanan joining the Royals’ squad. Although they won’t be available in the short term, as they are currently both away on international duty with the under-20s Jamaican team, they should be back in time for what looks like a vitally important end-of-season run-in.

And let’s not forget there’s a big match to look forward to next weekend. Kick-off is 2pm at Arbour Park, with the semi-final of the Berks & Bucks Cup against tier four Maidenhead United.

The Royals are, technically, the defending champions (Reading under-21s won this last season), so if you can, get yourself over to Slough to cheer on this young team and get into the final. See you there!

And if you can’t attend in person, my understanding is that it is also due to be streamed live - via the Football in Berkshire YouTube channel.