Beaconsfield had possession from the kick off, but a long ball played forward was comfortably dealt with by the Newbury defence, with Gemma Povey mopping up and working the ball out to Newbury’s right wing. Skipper Leanne Creese brought her left back into play, and it was Leanne Saunders’ clever ball over the top of the home side’s defence, that allowed Ellie Reed to run onto and bare down on the Beaconsfield goal. She drew the goalkeeper out and then coolly slotted home to take a one nil lead after just 2 minutes.

Having opened the scoring, Newbury were totally dominating possession in the first period and Beaconsfield were encamped in their final third of the pitch. On 16 minutes after a good run and cross from Creese, Ruby Oliver had a shot that was deflected and the Beaconsfield goalkeeper got down well to her left to make the save. Newbury’s defence was looking very comfortable and the whole team was playing some lovely passing football.

As the mid-way point of the first half approached, and with Newbury having failed to add to their one goal lead, they were given a rude awakening. With Beaconsfield’s first real attack, their Captain was found in space wide on the right and with no other support, from a 35 yard distance she sent in a very hopeful shot. The ball bounced in front of Newbury’s keeper and skipped up off the hard ground, much higher than expected and over the despairing arms of the goalkeeper and into the empty net. Beaconsfield had equalised completely against the run of play.

Newbury rallied though and immediately pressed again to try to regain the lead. Nicole Beesley, playing on Newbury’s left wing, cut inside and beat two players, before laying the ball off to Caroline Harkness. Her first time, side foot finish was just wide of the post. Then right on the stroke of half time, Ellie Reed turned provider, as she flicked the ball on for Ruby Oliver to take a touch, turn a defender and find a left foot finish. Again, the effort drifted agonisingly wide of the far post. So it remained 1-1 at half time.

With no changes at the break, Newbury resumed where they had left off and forced two early corners. Harkness touched the second cross down and into the path of Naomi Purvis, lurking on the edge of the area, but her shot sailed wide. All the pressure was Newbury’s, but a third corner on 56 minutes was again well saved, after Purvis’s low shot this time had come through a crowd of players. The Beaconsfield goalkeeper keeping her side in the match.

As the game wore on, both sides were tiring in the heat, but it was Beaconsfield that were starting to wrestle control of the midfield. With 75 minutes remaining, Newbury withdrew top scorer Oliver, and Sam Atkins came on to shore up the midfield. Beesley was getting through some tireless work on Newbury’s left and she again sent in a great cross into the Beaconsfield penalty area. This time Harkness was free in the box, but was again thwarted by the home keeper, who got down quickly to smother and collect at her feet.

With less than 10 minutes remaining, Creese and Harkness combined to good effect and played in a pass to Ellie Reed. She created five yards of space for herself to shoot from the edge of the area, but the effort went wide. The tempo of the match in the final stages was being driven fully by Newbury’s attacking play and they looked the only side likely to find a winning goal. Two further shooting chances fell to Atkins and Reed, but disappointingly neither found the target.

The last move of the game was a strong run from Creese, who’s thunderous shot was palmed away by the Beaconsfield keeper. That save earning her side a point and the match ended frustratingly for Newbury Ladies in a 1-1 draw. The positive however, is that Newbury are still undefeated in their Jubilee Cup campaign and they maintained their position as group leaders, with 3 fixtures remaining.