Woodley kicked off the match and attacked straight away, earning their first corner in the opening two minutes, which Newbury defended well. As expected, the Newbury defence were kept far busier by the fluidity and invention of Woodley’s attacking play in the game’s opening period. Woodley created several chances, forcing one food save from Chloe Hunt in the Newbury goal and others which the Newbury back line dealt with and cleared, amongst also several wayward shots from Woodley’s attack.

Then just before the half hour mark, Newbury strung together a very good team move that started out of defence, as centre half, Sophie Self cleared the ball when under pressure, finding captain, Leanne Creese deep in midfield. She in turn played a short pass forwards to Rachel Panting, who advanced into Woodley territory. Panting then played a killer through ball that split the Woodley defence and fell into the path of Newbury striker, Laura Ainscough. She had peeled into space round the back of the defence and saw her first time shot, which was low and across the keeper, rocket into the bottom corner.

Woodley had attacked for the previous 28 minutes without any joy and yet Newbury clinically took the lead with their first attempt on goal. The hosts were stung by falling a goal behind and within 2 minutes of the re-start they had hit the post with a shot from the edge of the Newbury box. Woodley forced a further two corners and then on the stroke of half time the pressure told and a shot from wide right did manage to beat Newbury’s keeper, as it sailed high into the roof of the net for one goal apiece at the break.

Newbury kicked off the second half, but lost possession early, which resulted in a long ball being floated downfield by Woodley. As Newbury had changed goalkeepers at the break, it was Ainscough who now donned the gloves and who came racing out of her goal to the edge of the Newbury penalty area. The Woodley striker had reached the ball first, before being floored by Ainscough, so the Referee had no hesitation in blowing for the foul in Woodley’s favour.

The free kick was central and direct and struck with real venom. It was an unstoppable effort that clipped the underside of the crossbar, before crossing the line and giving Woodley a 2-1 lead early in the second half.

Newbury refused to cave in however and stuck to their task well, concentrating on their defensive duties with real discipline. Whilst only a 12-woman squad had travelled from Newbury, Woodley had far greater resources to call upon and were able to ring the changes on several occasions, keeping fresh legs on the pitch.

It was mainly one-way traffic and an exercise in attack on defence, with continual Woodley pressure on the Newbury backline. Ainscough made several good saves for Newbury, with last ditch clearances also by Self and Naomi Purvis in the heart of defence. Newbury’s midfield of Ellie Reed, Lorna Parr, Panting and Creese, to their credit, were also getting through a huge amount of work. Newbury held on until the 80th minute when Woodley’s midfield pounced on a poor clearance and converted swiftly to extend their lead to 3 goals to one.

Having already hit the woodwork once in the first half and earlier in the second half, the Newbury post was rattled again in the 89th minute. On this occasion, Newbury couldn’t escape further punishment and with the rebound not cleared, Woodley’s striker had an easy tap-in from 6 yards. The match finished with Woodley taking a deserved 4-1 victory, but they were certainly made to work for the result and it was a good run-out, with positives for both teams.

Match report by Sue Hewett.