Reading 7-0 Frome Town
The women welcomed Frome Town to their home ground at Didcot on Sunday and started the game brightly despite two weeks of cancelled games due to the weather conditions.

It took new signing Cheyrl Williams, who has joined the squad from the National Premier League side Bristol Academy, just five minutes to make her mark. After narrowly missing a headed attempt on goal - her first touch of the ball - she struck the ball with her left foot from just outside the 18 yard box to see it rocket past Amy Edwards the Frome Town goalkeeper for the opening goal.

This was the trigger point, and from this moment onwards Reading simply dominated the game in every area of the pitch. The midfield trio of Natsha Caswell, Jo Chubb and Kayleigh Hines played some superb football that linked in well with the strikers in a 4-3-3 formation.

Wingers Rachel Fell and Williams continued to cause the Frome fullbacks problems all afternoon, feeding balls in for the attacking line-up to latch onto. Frome defended deep in the main and on the occasions that their striker Lauren Cundie received the ball from a long clearance she was met by a solid defensive line up.

Captain Kelly Chambers organised this superbly well again and was ably assisted by Stacy Wiggins, Sahara Osborne-Ricketts and Emma-Jayne Pearmine across the back line. The highlight of the first half was seeing Laura Woodley find the form that has made her top goal-scorer in the league for most of the season.

She not only scored a superb hat-trick, but contributed a superb assist with a neatly-threaded pass through the Frome centrebacks to see Jo Chubb smash one into the back of the net. The first half ended with Reading being 5-0 up.

Frome Town clearly welcomed the half time break and used the time wisely to re-organise and re-group. They started the second half well and created several more chances that were again neatly dealt with by the Reading keeper Charlotte Poole and her defence.

Frome did manage to win two or three corners but these did not really threaten and were swiftly cleared. Early into the second half Wiggins was replaced by Becky Sargent, returning from a long injury - it was good to see her back; Lauren May who replaced Woodley and Jenny Webb who replaced Chubb.

It didn't take too long for the Reading team to get back into a good tempo and Frome soon found themselves defending deep and under pressure for large parts of the second half, which tended to follow the same pattern as the first.

Kayleigh Hines sparked some life back into the game on 60 minutes when she collected the ball deep in midfield, spotted the Frome keeper off her line and with a Beckhamesque lobbed shot, scored number six to the amazement of the spectators.

Number seven came with six minutes left on the clock, as Reading continued to mount pressure. This came for Caswell and was well deserved for a hard working performance all afternoon.

Manager Frank Rodriguez commented after the game, "We were delighted with the way we played - amazing football at times - and the goals Hines and Woodley scored, well all I can say is that women are from Venus - out of this world!"

Reserves 1-4 Havant
The reserves gave Havant the upper hand in the race for the Southern Region Division 1 title on Sunday.

In a game that Reading took control of, they just seemed to have 'one of those days' after dominating long periods of play. The scoreline is not a fair reflection of the game which was a very closely-fought match.

Reading were made to rue missed opportunities from as early as the sixth minute when Kayleigh Mitchell released Tracey Beales in behind, and after taking it around the stranded goalkeeper she sliced her effort high and wide, strongly aided by a bobble in the pitch.

It was though, however, after only 20 minutes that Reading took a deserved lead. Tracy Corkett did well to beat her marker to the ball and she set up Beales, who turned and finished well. Reading now had the upper hand and continued to press and create chances.

Havant though looked dangerous on the break and we knew given the chance they would take them. On 34 minutes we handed them a lifeline. Havant's centre forward battled well with centre back pairing Sophie Measham and Rebecca Todd and having seemingly forced the forward away from goal Measham lunged in giving away a soft penalty.

Even after scoring from the penalty spot Havant did not begin to press forward instead it was Reading who finished the half strongly but were unable to force the ball home from a number of corners and scrambles in the six-yard box before the break.

The break came with Reading on top and unfortunate not to be leading, but the message was clear for the second half, keep playing as they had, chances will come and let's try and win this game.

The second half started off as the first finished, with Reading on the attack. Clever play from Beales found Lauren Welch 10 yards out but her shot was blocked and Beales could not force the rebound home. Corkett did well on the right on 50 minutes finding Josette Pearmine who's shot flew wide. A minute later Corkett again did well but her shot was saved and only 2 goal line clearances from Welch and Beales attempts kept the score level.

On 54 minutes frustration began to creep in as a Leanne Ryan corner could not be forced home after seeming to spend an age in the Havant six-yard box. 57 minutes saw Charlotte Chard replace Mitchell in midfield which added a little more to Readings attacking play but disaster struck on 70 minutes as Havant began to get a foothold in the game.

Havant's right midfielder did well to beat left back Laura Derlacki and her cross floated into the far corner of the goal.

Shelley Strange then replaced Welch, who had performed well, as Reading now had to chase the game. Reading again created chances which they did not put away and with less than 10 minutes left Havant made it 3-1 with a well taken header and their centre forward made it 4-1 in the dying seconds as she found space to break 1on1 with Gemmell in Reading's goal as we were pushing to get back in to the game.

Royals Reserve Team Manager Michael Butcher said afterwards, "The girls did well today, worked hard and controlled long periods of a game we feel we deserved to win. Having said that though you won't win titles if you don't finish your chances, we didn't do that today and Havant did. Fair play to them and we have to hope for other results to go our way now."

With only 3 games left to play Reading now need Havant to lose one of their remaining 5 matches to stand a chance of finishing top. Reading reserves are home to basement team Newport Pagnell next weekend.